The Love of a Country
by Brony and the Hetalian
Summary: Alex and Alexis are two sisters that fall in love with their own countries.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

Alexis P.O.V

When I was little, everything was so simple. Boys were considered icky, the only people you really loved were your family, and your best friend was the girl who gave you a cookie at snack time. Growing up I lived in a small neighborhood with my mom, dad, and older sister. But my parents got divorced when I was only five and my sister seven. Mom was born and raised in New York, the city that never sleeps and the place mom and me moved to after the divorce. Dad on the other hand was from England, where my sister lived throughout a majority of our childhood. He was generally very firm while my mother was a free spirit. When our parents seperated my dad proceeded to take my sister, Alex, to England while I stayed with my mom. Every other summer I would travel to England to spend some quality sister time with Alex, and she would come to America in the summers in between. Life for me was very odd and slightly unpredictable, but one thing that kept its pace was my comic books. Now here I am (still loving comics), just graduating high school and on a plane headed to London for summer vacation. At that moment I didn't know that this trip would be turning my life upside down.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter One

Alexis's POV

I stare at one of the revolving conveyer belts at the luggage claim inside the Heathrow airport, spitting out bags from other passengers that were on the same flight as me. God, why is it that my luggage is always the last one to come out of the plane? It's been this way every summer I come here! Finally my hideous puke green suitcase that mom bought at our neighbor's yard sale and gave me comes tumbling out. I snatch it and head towards the automatic sliding doors leading to the arrival hall. Once I pass the last security check and walk through the doors, I see my older sister, Alex. "Hey! Over here Alexis!" She says with a slight British accent, hugging me tightly when I'm close enough.

"Hey Alex" I say with a small moan. "That was such a long plane ride! And you know; my bag was the last one out again!" Alex tries to stifle a giggle, but fails. I look pointedly at her. "So uh what's the plan?"

"Well I was thinking we could just go straight to my flat and get you all settled in. Your room's pretty much the same as you left it when you last came here. You'll just have to put your stuff away." I follow Alex as we walk and talk to the parking garage.

"Can we stop at a comic store first?" I ask with as much excitement as I could muster, which is a lot. The new Iron Man comic just came out recently and I am dying to get it, the reviews say it's one of the best comics to come out this year! "Pretty please, with cherries on top?"

Alex sighs and smiles. "Fine, but you better not take too long getting it! And you're paying for it yourself!" I squeal with joy and glomp her. We precede the rest of the way to Alex's Lotus Evora with me tugging on Alex to hurry. I place my luggage in the trunk and slide into the front passenger seat. Going as fast as the speed limit would allow us, we drive to what we both know is the nearest comic book store to the Heathrow airport, "Super Hero Fortress".

* * *

><p>When we park in front of the store I squeal again. "Oh! Alex! Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!" I jump out of the car and sprint straight into the store I had spent a good chunk of my childhood at in England. In the past when I stayed with my dad and Alex during certain summers, I would come here to read my favorite comics the majority of the day till I get kicked out. I run through the doors and make a beeline to the section dedicated to my favorite super hero. In front of me the brand new comic comes into my sights, there's only one copy left by the looks of it. The moment I reach for it, some other guy goes for it too. "Dude! What do you think you're doing? I grabbed the comic first!" I look at him and shoot daggers at him from my eyes.<p>

"There's no way you got it before the awesome hero did HAHAHA!" He yells loudly and laughs obnoxiously at the end. His voice doesn't have any British accent; it actually sounds more like an American accent like mine. Taking a better look at him, he's tall, large body build, with messy, dirty blond hair and heartbreaker blue eye which are covered by black framed glasses. I could feel my cheeks heat up. This guy is kind of cute.

"Alright "hero", if you say you got here first then why didn't you grab it first?" I shout and glare at him, ignoring the weird feeling in my heart.

"I DID! I'm asking why YOU grab it after I did?"

"I didn't! You grabbed it after I did!"

* * *

><p>Alex's POV<p>

I lean against my black Lotus Evora, the one that my dad got me for my 16th birthday, outside of "Super Hero Fortress". I've always wondered about that name, it has to be the strangest in all London. Next to the store, sitting on an old wooden bench, is a guy maybe around 20 by the looks of it, with blonde hair and the greenest eyes I have ever seen. They're like small emeralds, ones you can fall in love with instantly. Above them are some pretty large eyebrows, which remind me of two fuzzy caterpillars. Though they look just right on him, they give the guy a little extra character.

I continue staring at him for a while longer before loud yelling comes from inside the store. Two voices drift out, one sounding exactly like Alexis's. The guy on the bench stands up at the same time I push myself off my car. We both walk towards the door, the green eyed man reaching it before me. But instead of going immediately in; he opens the door and holds it gesturing for me to go through. I notice that he's not much taller than me.

"Thank you" I say with a small blush dusting my cheeks. He smiles at me, a smile so gentle and sweet that my insides warm up at the sight of it.

"It's no problem, only doing what any gentleman would do." I blush even harder at his British accent, though it's nothing new when you live in London, his sounds different. With another gesture to go ahead, I pass him with nod of gratitude. Inside the yelling grows even louder; edging towards a full out scream. The shopkeeper notices us and points down the Iron Man section. I grimace, say thank you, and head the way his finger was pointing. Peeking behind me, the guy from outside is still following me. Down the aisle, right next to a sign for a new Iron Man comic, playing tug-of-war with a copy of the comic with a large dirty blonde haired man, stands Alexis.

"I didn't! You grabbed it after I did!" I hear her scream. With a long, drawn out sigh I march towards Alexis while the green eyed man moves to the dirty blonde haired man holding the other end of the comic.

I grasp the back of Alexis's T-shirt and yank her backwards. "Alexis, a comic is not worth making such a big scene." She tries squirming out of my grip, only for me to pull her back even harder.

"Alfred! I'm sure I taught you better manners than this!" I glimpse up to see the British man dragging the other guy that must be Alfred. "You don't fight with or yell at a young lady you git!" Alexis gives Alfred her famous death glare and he pouts. The British man looks at me apologetically. "I'm sorry about him, you can have that comic."

"Dude! So not cool!" Alfred pouts even more and crosses his arms over his chest. Alexis grins triumphantly and reaches for the comic. I snatch it off the ground where it had fallen before she could touch it.

"No, no, it isn't only your fault. Alexis here is also a culprit." I release my hold on Alexis's t-shirt and place the comic back where it had originally been. "And I think it would only be fair if neither of them got it."

Alexis stares at me in disbelief, eyes and mouth wide open. "That is so unfair! You said we could come here and that's exactly what I came to get!" I shake my head.

"Normally I would say that you could have it, but making such a big fuss in this store over one comic, that's not how you usually act." Alexis's eyes wander over my shoulder. She lunges past me and smacks something.

"Ow! Hey what was that for?" I turn around to Alfred rubbing his hand and Alexis glowering at him.

"Didn't you hear her, we BOTH can't have it. So keep your paws off it" Then they both glare at each other. I rub my temples, groaning at the childishness from the two of them. Someone clears their throat to the left of me and I look over at the British man.

His eyes ask a question as they shift towards the pair and then back at me; I give him a small shrug. He exhales softly and faces the still glaring couple. "You two, stop this foolishness at once. Ame-Alfred, you need to apologize to this young lady and I have the perfect idea how you could do that. The London Wonderground is still going on, why don't you take . . ."

"Alexis Smith. Born and raised in America and a true New Yorker." Alexis grins widely, acting very proud of her birth country.

The British man rolls his eyes while Alfred beams brightly. I laugh at the difference between their reactions. The British man glances at me and coughs into his hand, trying to cover the blush forming. "Ok you can take . . . Alexis . . . to the London Wonderground, if it's alright with you." He nods at me.

I give a tiny smile at his concern. "That's fine with me. I was going to take her there myself, but if this is his way of apologizing then it's perfectly alright." I glance at Alexis and smirk inside my head at the sight of a small blush on her face.

Alfred glances at Alexis and blushes profoundly. Yup this will be the start of a beautiful relationship. The British man pulls me aside from the two and holds out his hand for me to shake. "I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, I'm Arthur Kirkland and you are?" He watches me with his emerald eyes and I can't help but gaze into them.

"A-A-Alex. Alex Smith." I take his hand and shake it. "I-It's a pleasure to meet you."

Arthur holds up my hand and kisses my knuckles. "The pleasure is all mine." He winks at me. I blush so hard that I my face must be the same shade as a tomato. I turn to peek at Alexis and we both giggle like 5 year olds receiving candy, this will be one interesting summer vacation.

* * *

><p>AN: Alex and Alexis here! Just want to say that this is our first ever fanfiction, so we would love it if you could review and tell us what you think so far. Also since it's two people writing this story it's a little difficult to find a good time to work on the story together. But don't you worry, this story will have a start and an end :D Oh and we don't own Hetalia it would be soooo cool if we did but we do not own the characters or the anime, just our characters. If you're wondering what the London Wonderground is you should look it up because it really does exist. Thanks for reading and please review XD


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Alexis POV

I gaze into the mirror mounted on the wall next to my bed. My chocolate brown curls hang down past my shoulders, still damp from the recent shower I took. I have on a black tee with the heads of my favorite band, Green Day, printed on it and a pair of old worn out blue jeans. Glancing down at the ground, I stare intensely at my black and white converse. My hands are shaking uncontrollably and I clasp them together in front of me. This is the first I've ever felt this nervous about something like this in my life! I mean I've gone on some dates with guys before, but for some strange reason this one feels different. I plop down on the sky blue colored covers, the exact color of Alfred's eyes, on my bed, crossing my legs up on it, and rest my head in my hands

"Are you doing okay?" I peek through my fingers to see my big sister leaning against the doorframe.

I chuckle nervously. "Yeah I'm alright, just really nervous! I mean look at my hands!" I hold up my hands for her to see. My sister smiles and sits down on the bed next to me. She looks amazing with her black with a white rose t-shirt and a white jacket over that. Alex also has her really cute pair of shorts on, which are also black. Her hair's up in a loose ponytail with strands of dirty blond hair sticking out at random areas.

"You're not the only one!" She giggles and after a moment I join in. This is the first time we've gone on a double date together.

"What time will the boys be picking us up?" I ask after the two of us stop giggling.

"Arthur told me four thirty in the text he sent me a while ago."

"You two have exchanged numbers already! I didn't think to get Alfred's." I sigh sadly. Well that's kind of stupid of me. Why didn't I ask him for it? I'm pretty sure he would have given it to me.

"Well we kind of had to. How else would we be able to communicate with them?" I uncross my legs and move them so they're hanging off the bed and stare at my shoes again.

"What time is it now?"

Alex pulls her jacket sleeve up so I could see her silver watch. "It's 4:21, about time we're supposed to be picked up. Or they-"

_Ding Dong. _

"-could be early. . . Well, well, well. It appears they ARE early. Alexis you have to make a choice now," Alex says, getting her serious face on. "You can either, be adventurous and brave and go out on this date or you can be a coward and hide up here for the rest of the night. Of course if you did that you'd be missing out on a whole lot fun, and really cute guy that may have a crush on you."

I stare at her in complete shock. "Alex? How could you possibly think I would miss a chance like this to go out with a guy who likes iron man just as much as me?" Alex starts laughing again and I grin at her. The doorbell rings again, a bit impatiently, so Alex and I slide off my bed and gather our things we need in a rush. We hurry out the door of Alex's condo, locking it behind us, before going down the stairs and opening the entrance door fast. There, about to ring the doorbell a third time stands Arthur, but no Alfred.

"Hello Arthur." Alex chirps from behind me. I feel a pang of pure and utter disappointment in my chest. My eyes just start to water when I glance into Arthur's car and see Alfred waving frantically at me from the back seat. I squeal like a five year old girl and run out the door, around the car, and slide into the seat next to him.

"Hi!" I say excitedly. Alfred grins at me.

"H-Hi, Alexis." He stutters, glancing downwards and avoiding eye contact. His smile wavers a little; his nerves getting the best of him. He must be just as nervous as I am.

"You're nervous too huh?" I poke his arm lightly and smirk.

"What? Me?" He yelps loudly. "I-is it that noticeable?"

I chuckle and nod. "Yeah, but I'm nervous too so you don't need worry about it." He lets out a breath that he was holding and slouches in his seat, seemingly more relaxed now. "Hey, can you see what Arthur and Alex are doing? Their taking such a long time to get out here it's making me curious. Besides I can't see them through my window." Alfred turns his head towards the window, peering out to the front entrance.

"Oh my gosh, I can't believe this! Artie's face is redder then a cherry!" He laughs loudly, doubling over. I scoot closer to his side of the car to peek out the window with him, just to see Alex's equally red face.

"Wow. I haven't seen Alex smile like that since, well . . . since I was in the fourth grade!" I giggle into my hand. "Oh crap they're coming!" I quickly slide back to my side and buckle up. Arthur opens the passenger door for Alex, very gentlemanly like, before walking around the car to the driver's seat. I have to say that Arthur's car is so cool! It's one of those old cars that look like it must have been made in the nineteen forties. He puts the key in the ignition and starts up the engine and we're off out of the condos parking lot and down the street.

* * *

><p>"Soooo . . . what's the plan?" I ask the others, mainly the two guys. We just arrived at the marvelous wonderground and gotten our tickets. "Honestly I want to go on the bigger rides, but I know exactly how Alex gets when she goes on them." A huge smile starts spreading across Alfred's face, making him look like a fool. "What's with that face Alfred?"<p>

"No freaking way!" He bellows.

"No freaking way what?" I reply, slightly confused.

"I like big rides too!" He says enthusiastically. Arthur rolls his eyes at Alfred before looking at Alex.

"What does your sister mean when she says she knows how you get on big rides?" He asks her. I snigger and glance over at my dear sister, watching her face redden the same shade as a tomato.

"She gets extremely sick right after stepping off the ride." I reply while trying to suppress my laughter and failing. Alex gives me the most unpleasant face imaginable.

"Well then why don't we split up?" Arthur suggests. "I know Alfred loves rather large rides while I prefer to keep my feet planted on the ground. Just to this as simple as possible for you Alfred; Alex and I will enjoy the circuses or something much calmer while you and Alexis can go on those horrendous rides." Immediately after Arthur finishes speaking, Alfred grabs my hand and starts dragging me to the closest attraction, which happens to be bumper cars. "Bloody hell Alfred, act like a gentleman!"

The line for the bumper cars was surprisingly short and we get in practically when we just step in line. "Do you wanna do two seats with both of us in one car or separate?"Alfred asks me, handing over our tickets to the ticket master.

"I want to do separate so I can kick your butt!" I tease him. Before he can retort back, I jump into a blue car and, after shaking off his surprise, Alfred slides into a nearby red one. The moment the green light goes off he rams into me without any hesitation. I glare at him wickedly, turn around and crash into him just as fast as he did to me. I then retreat as fast as these cars could go but end up getting cornered by Alfred as he hits me again.

"Hey! Alexis!" He yells at me.

"What, you twit?" I holler back at him, using a name I heard Alex call to drivers who cut her off on the road.

"I'm requesting that you go on the London Eye with me!"

"That gigantic Ferris wheel we saw when walking into the fair? Why?"

"It's a large ride; we're planning on riding large rides, so we have to ride it!"

"It's not even in this park! Plus it costs money that I don't have on me!"

I run into him, skimming against his sides, trying to escape the trap he has set me up in. "What makes you think I'd let you pay?"

"I just kind of assumed!" I shout back loudly enough so he could hear.

"So will you?"

"Okay, but only cause you asked me so nice-Woah!" Before I could finish my sentence, someone crashes into me, hard. My neck snaps back, knocking into the cushioned head rest which really isn't that cushiony. Right after that impact, all the cars stop indicating that our time on the ride is over. I close my eyes, tears forming the corner of my eyes from the shock and pain in the back of my head.

"Dude, what the hell was that for?" Alfred yells.

"Sorry mate; couldn't help but hit a pretty lady." I open my eyes to see Alfred standing threateningly in front of some British dude, looking like he's about to punch his lights out.

"Well, leave her alone! Or I won't hesitate to seriously mess up that face of yours!" The British dude backs up slowly then sprints out of the attraction exit. Alfred rushes over to my side of the bumper car. "You okay?" He asks me, his blue eyes look at me with worry.

"Yeah . . . I'm fine Alfred. Its bumper cars, this is how their supposed to work, we bump into each other. Could you, maybe, help me out of this thing?" I unbuckle the belt keeping me strapped in the bumper car. But, instead of helping me out how normal people would, Alfred picks me up bridal style. "Hey! Why are you carrying me like this! You know I can walk just fine!"

"I feel like picking you up like this. Besides a Hero wouldn't let a young lady who is injured work to hard." He replies with a smirk. Once we exit the bumper cars attraction he gently sets me down on the pavement. "TO THE LONDON EYE WE GO!"

"Wait, Alfred!" I holler after him, stopping him in his tracks.

"What?"

"Can we go on some other rides too? Before we head to the Eye?"

"Of course we can! TO THE OTHER RIDES WE GO!" He shouts really loud, attracting the attention of those walking past us. Alfred takes my hand and drags me to other rides, just like how he dragged me to the bumper car ride.

* * *

><p>Alex's POV<p>

I watch Alfred drag Alexis off into the crowd before turning back to my own date, Arthur. He notices me staring at him and gives me a gentle angelic smile, which I can't help but blush at. "Should we be going as well?" I nod, unable to work my mouth properly. "Do you have any preference on where we should go?" Now that is a very good question.

There are multiple rides that we could go on, but I'm not in much of a mood to be going on them. Then there are shows and concerts showcasing all over the grounds, all sorts of circus and musical type of events. While I was debating on what we should do, my stomach grumbles really loudly. Arthur looks at me with wide eyes, surprised, before bursting out with laughter. I glance down at my feet sheepishly, my face ablaze. This is so embarrassing.

Arthur manages to calm himself down, his laughing turning into coughs. "Well then, since you seem so hungry, why don't we start at a cafe for a bite to eat?"At the mention of food my stomach growls again, which gets Arthur laughing all over again.

I cross my arms, turn my head to the side, and pout. "That isn't very gentlemanly you know." But this time he can't stop himself, so I turn on my heels and start walking in the opposite direction. "If you want to continue on laughing then go right ahead, you'll just be doing that alone." I huff and slip past a few couples, making my way towards the exit. All of a sudden someone grabs my wrist and spins me around, bringing me face to face with Arthur. He's no longer laughing and instead has an apologetic expression on.

"I'm sorry Alex; I don't know what came over me. It's just; your embarrassed expression was so adorable I couldn't help but find it amusing. Please don't leave." His eyes look at me with such sincerity and sadness that my bad mood melts away.

"Alright, I won't leave, but promise me that you won't go laughing at me like that another time."

"I swear on my life that such a thing won't happen ever again."

"Thank you, now we were talking about getting something to eat right?" Arthur smiles brightly and nods. "Then let's go. I haven't eaten since this morning."

Arthur glances at me in surprise all over again. "Then we shouldn't daddle, we can't have you going hungry now can we." He holds out his arm towards me and I place my hands in the crook of his elbow. "I saw a small cafe when we were going through the entrance, would that be good enough?"

"It'll have to do. I don't know how good their tea is but I'm hoping its good enough." I giggle softly, hiding my smile behind one of my hands as we head to the cafe.

Arthur takes my hand and tugs it away from my face. "You shouldn't hide your smile, love. Your smiles are the most radiant smiles I have ever seen." I blush furiously at the sweetness of his comment but refrain from hiding the smile that appears on my face. He leads me down the path that we had taken when entering the grounds, but turns to the left before the entrance, going through the glass doors of a quaint little cafe.

"It doesn't look too bad, though you can never trust these kinds of stores." I glance around the interior of the store till my eyes land on Arthur, who is staring straight at me. "What? Is there something on my face?" He chuckles when I start to pat my cheeks softly, shaking his head.

"It's nothing. I've been to this shop a few times and the tea and scones are decent. Not like what I make at home but it'll have to do." We walk to the counter where a blond haired brown eyed girl stands behind the cashier, flipping through a pink covered fashion magazine.

She glances up, sees the two of us, and quickly shoves the magazine to the side, replacing her bored expression with a big fake smile. "Welcome!" As she sets her eyes on Arthur, I can tell right then that she's checking him out. And it seems that she likes what she sees. "Well hello there handsome." I grimace at the flirtatious smile spreading across her face, oh how I hate these kinds of girls, and tighten my grip on Arthur's elbow. The cashier notices me and sneers. "Are you paying for her too? Cause if you are that is so totally hot. I love a man who helps the less fortunate."

I stare at her in disgust, glance up at Arthur, who seems to be rather uncomfortable in this situation, and then glare back at the cashier. "Could you please just do your job and take our order?" This ticks her off but she hides it with an over the top innocent smile.

"Hey calm down, it was just a joke, even though I'm sure he would agree with me. And you know; no guy likes a clingy girl." I gasp slightly in shock. Before I could snap back, Arthur steps in.

"That's enough. I won't be having you insult my date anymore." He gives the cashier the deadliest look I've ever seen and she flinches. "Now if you don't take our orders then we'll gladly go somewhere else." She nods stiffly. "Good." Arthur looks at me. "What would you like to have?"

I glance at the menu then at Arthur then back at the menu. "Well I normally get an earl grey with a little milk and a pinch of sugar, that's the best kind of tea ever." Arthur stares at me in surprise before melting away to a warm smile. "What is it this time?"

"It's just . . . that's the exact type of tea that I enjoy. It's amazing how our favorite type of teas is the same." I blush and look anywhere except into his green eyes. Arthur puts two fingers under my chin and lifts it up. "What did I say about hiding your face?" My face heats up even more and I'm sure if this continues I'll faint.

Someone clears their throat and we look up to see the cashier with an annoyed expression. "Can you hurry I really don't have all day to deal with you. Unless of course; it's you handsome that wants to spend some time together." She winks at Arthur and I snap. Within seconds I grab the collar of her shirt and yank her forwards so our noses our nearly touching.

"Listen here you, stay away from him because he is mine. If I see you even glancing at him in any flirtatious way I will scratch your eyes out and feed them to the birds. Do I make myself clear?" Both the cashier and Arthur look at me in complete and utter shock. But then Arthur bursts out laughing, making me release my grip on the cashiers t-shirt and lightly glare at him. "Now what's so funny! I'm being completely serious here!"

Arthur stops laughing long enough for him to reply. "I admire you for standing up for yourself, that was brilliant . . . simply brilliant." He looks at the cashier and smiles innocently. "We'll have two earl grays with milk and sugar and add a couple of scones to go." She nods quickly and then scurries away to gather everything from our order. Arthur turns back to me, only his once kind and laughing expression now serious. "Alex, I know that what she said angered you, and like I said before I admire your bravery, but please be a little more careful. What if instead of that girl it was someone that was more dangerous. Doing something like that could get you hurt." I pout at him, ashamed that I got reprimanded by Arthur. I notice from the corner of my eye him lifting his hand to brush a strand of my blond hair behind my ear. "So please, think a little bit before you act alright?" His fingers trail down my jaw line, across my cheeks, and linger on my lips causing a shiver to run down my spine. He lowers his hand to grab mine clenched around my bag strap. "Alright?"

"A-a-alright."

"Good." Right at that moment the cashier returns with our drinks and food. She sets it down on the counter in front of us with only a 'here you are'. Arthur takes out his wallet, which has the union jack printed on it I might add, and pulls out enough money to pay for the both of us and hands it to her. "Keep the change." He grabs one of the teas and hands it to me before getting his own drink and our scones. "Let's go."

I grin widely at him. "Okay!" We then walk out of the store with our teas in hand and a bag of scones, this day couldn't possibly get any better.

* * *

><p>Alexis POV<p>

"Tickets please." Asks the man letting people into the biggest Ferris wheel I have ever seen, and probably the biggest one in the world. The cars for the Ferris wheel are also gigantic, looking to be able to fit at least 15 people in them. When we arrived at the back of the line for the London Eye the sun was starting to sink into the horizon, now at the front, it's dark with the stars shining in the sky. Alfred hands the Ticketmaster our tickets and also a semi-large wad of cash, whispering something in his ear that I couldn't hear. The man then proceeds to lead us in the car and, to my surprise, closes the door behind us.

"Alfred, why are we the only ones in here?" I question him.

"I gave that guy a little extra cash so we wouldn't be crowded with a lot of people in this small glass box." He replies with a smile. I gawk at him, completely surprised.

"But wouldn't he get in trouble for doing that?"

"Nah not really, I know his boss so it's cool."

"Oh; alright then, if you say so." I slowly respond, still a little unsure. Moving past the bench, I stare out the window of side closest to the water. "Wow, this is beautiful!" The moon is out right above the water, casting its glow and creating a reflection. As we slowly rise in a circular motion, the lights of London create a picture perfect moment.

"What is?" Alfred asks, walking over to stand next to me.

"This scenery . . ." I whisper softly, as if speaking loudly would break this spell.

"You're more beautiful, Alexis." I look over at him and raise an eyebrow.

"What are you? The cheesiest guy in the world?"

"I could be, but I'm 75% sure I'm not. Plus if I were the cheesiest guy in the world there would be fireworks going off right about now." As soon as he says that, the sky lights up with red, white and blue fireworks. I stare at him dumbstruck. "That has nothing to do with me! I swear!" His face turns a bright shade of red.

"Suuuuurrrrreee!" I laugh. We're getting closer to the peak of the Ferris wheel. "Remember in the car, when I told you I was really nervous?"

"Yeah; why? He replies, a smile still on his face.

"I'm not so nervous anymore."

"Really?" He mumbles, sliding closer to me.

"Really." Now he's only inches from my face. I breathe in his scent, the scent of . . . Hamburgers.

"Well what if I did this?" Alfred then closes the little space left between our lips and kisses me. My eyes widen then flutter shut, my heart skipping a couple of beats. After a few seconds of kissing, he pulls away quickly. "I-I'm sorry, I don't know what just came over me." He stutters.

I look up at him in surprise, then smile slyly. "Shut up and kiss me you fool."

* * *

><p>Alex's POV<p>

The sun sets beyond the horizon, coloring the sky in hues of pinks and oranges. I glance to the right and watch Arthur admire the picture worthy sight. His emerald eyes appear to glitter from the rays of light that shoot out towards us. I can't help but stare at him in wonder, how on earth did I manage to get a date with this wondrous man? We sit on a bench, much like the one that was in front of the comic store, side by side next to a couple of trees in the Jubilee Gardens close to the London Eye. Most people were still in the Wonderground, so the gardens are mostly empty.

". . .-x . . . -lex! . . . ALEX!" I snap to attention, not even realizing that I had been zoning out, and glance over at Arthur. "What's wrong? You weren't responding to anything I was saying and you had this far off look to your eyes." His eyes are filled with worry and concern, which gives me sort of a warm fuzzy feeling inside. He reaches out his and gently touches my cheek.

I blush from his touch and quickly slide back out of his reach, he frowns at this. "I'm sorry if I worried you. I was a little too deep in my thoughts. What were you saying before?" Arthur stares at me, a frown still etched on his face.

"Nothing important, I was just pointing out how lovely this sunset is. Are you sure you're alright? If you aren't feeling well I could take you home if that's what you want."

"No, I'm fine. Really. Just a little overwhelmed. This day has been amazing, and unbelievable. I . . . I guess I just . . . don't know how I ended up going on a date with someone as . . ." I struggle to find the word that would best describe him. "phenomenal as you. You're handsome, romantic, funny, and downright adorable. I know you could have any girl you wished for, and yet you picked me." I take a deep breath, keeping me eyes downcast. "Why chose me?"

I feel hands on both sides of my face, lifting it up so I'm gazing into Arthur's eyes. His facial expression is serious, but I could see his cheeks tinting pink. "Alex . . . you are amazing. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't be you. You're beautiful, charming, brave, and I couldn't help but fall in love with you the moment I saw you leaning against your car in front of the comic book store." He leans in, his face inching closer to mine. "And I wouldn't have it any other way." Just before our lips touch Arthur hesitates and I close the gap between us.

The kiss is short but sweet and we separate after a few seconds, keeping our foreheads touching. I peek up to see him gazing at me with a loving gaze and blush deep red. He brushes back some of my hair away from my eyes, with a small smile. "Do you understand now?" I look at him and smile back.

"I guess I do." Then, without another word, we kiss once again. The sun giving one last burst of sunshine before falling behind the horizon completely. This day has just became the best day of my entire life.

* * *

><p>AN: I apologize for the lateness! Lots of things started happening; sickness, school, just plain being lazy. But here's the second chapter! I do not own Hetalia (though I would love too). The 3rd chapter is done being written and only needs to be edited, but do to other writing assignments elsewhere it might take some time for it to get done being edited. On another note, like I said before the London Wonderground exists! But the rides and shops in this chapter are completely made up (except for the London eye, that's real). So thank you for reading and I would love it if you could review!


	4. Chapter 4

Alex's POV

After the date at the London Wonderground, Arthur and I met up a couple of more times throughout a week. Some of those days we went out with my sister and Arthur's friend, Alfred. Other days, we spent time together just the two of us. On the days that it was just us, he took me out to fancy restaurants and on long walks through parks and parts of the city. Throughout those walks he'd point out small details of flowers or buildings that I never knew before. I have to say, I've learned more about London from Arthur then from any textbook or website.

There was one date where he had taken me out past the city limits, to a small hiking trail a little ways away. But we didn't go on the main more popular trail, we actually walked right past it. Instead, Arthur had taken me to a narrower, barely existent, path that led to the most gorgeous clearing I've ever been to. The hike there was excruciating but the reward at the end made the scratches, blisters, and bruises, all worth it. Upon having arrived there, Arthur leaned in and gave me a sweet, yet quick, kiss.

But lately I've been having this feeling that Arthur is hiding something from me, something big. Whenever we're on a date and his phone rings, after he's answered the call, he would always have to quickly drop me off at home and race away. When I asked him about it, he'd tell me it was his boss calling and that they needed him. Arthur never really talked about his job; I don't even know what he does for a living. Even when I used my puppy dog eyes, he still wouldn't tell me anything more. And no one can resist the puppy dog eyes; they're just too damn adorable.

It's not that I don't trust him, because I do wholeheartedly, but I'm saddened that Arthur can't confide in me about these things. I also have this suspicion that Alfred is a part of all of this as well. The times we went on a double date's and Arthur got a call, both he and Alfred excused themselves and left. Of course, I haven't told Alexis about these coincidences, I don't want to make her worry. So for now, I'll just stick to watching him a little closer, maybe he'll accidently drop a hint. Though I hope that whatever it is he's hiding, it end up hurting me or, even worse, my sister.

* * *

><p>Alexis's POV<p>

The rest of the date with Alfred went amazingly well! After we had gotten off the Ferris wheel, we met up with Arthur and Alex. My sister looked incredibly happy, standing next to Arthur with a faint blush, which made me the night even better! We then spent a good few minutes admiring the fireworks, still being shot into the air.

Afterwards they drove us home and Alfred kissed me goodnight, after Alex and gotten into the condo and Arthur into his car. Throughout the week we had hung out together several times. We went to the beach, swam in the sea, collected shells, and had a blast! Later that same day, I made hamburgers on the grills they had there and when I brought them to Alfred, he screamed out with delight! I'll have to remember that he like's hamburgers more than the average person.

One day we just hanged out the park, sitting on a bench, talking. It was a nice and relaxing time I must say. But there are sometimes where Alfred will get these calls from his boss and then he just has to leave. It makes me sad when it happens. Oh well, at least he has a job!

* * *

><p>Alfred's POV<p>

I slouch down lower in my chair at the world meeting, staring intently at my phone as I text to what has to be the most beautiful girl in the whole world. All the other countries present in the room are chatting amongst themselves about something I didn't really have an interest in. It's been about a week since Alexis and I begun hanging out more and I feel a part of my heart missing whenever she's not by my side.

I glance up from my phone, surveying the room, and notice that England isn't here yet. Which is odd since the guy is normally the very first person to arrive at a meeting. Plus he's the host for this meeting, which is bad of him. He's probably off flirting with Alexis's sister, Alex. Lucky bastard . . .

"Ve~ hey America, what are you doing?" I look up to see Italy bouncing up and down on his heels with a bubbly smile. Immediately I shove my iphone into the pocket of my brown bomber jacket.

"Nothin much. Why?" I reply, somewhat nervous. I don't know if I'm ready for the other countries to know about Alexis yet.

"You're being very quiet today ve." He giggles. "It's so unlike you."

Behind the Italian, France comes waltzing up. "Italy iz right Amérique, ohononon." France says in thick, well, French accent. "What iz keeping your little mind so occupied hm?" I glance around nervously, unsure of what to do. Suddenly I hear my phone's ring tone go off. Crap.

"Who's that?" Italy innocently asks while France swipes my phone from my pocket.

The Frenchy then scampers away with MY phone in his hands. "Give that back, France!" I shout, jumping out of my chair. France starts laughing his stupid laugh. I chase after him, trying to snatch my phone.

"Who iz zis belle dame? She iz quite lovely if I do say so myself." He says, pointing to my phones wallpaper. It's the picture of Alexis and me on our second outing, the one where we're at the beach. "When you grow bored of her, I'll gladly take her off your hands." After those words slip out of his mouth, I punch him square in the face. France collapses onto the floor and, in the process, releases his grip on my phone. I walk over and pick it up, checking it for any damage. By then, every country in the room is staring at me in either surprise or confusion. "Ow! I was just joking, mon dieu." France cries out, rubbing at his cheek tenderly.

"America-san?" The voice comes from behind me and I turn around to my besty, Japan. "Did France do something?"

I sigh; guess I don't have much of a choice now. "I'm sort of . . . seeing this girl. France was being France, a perverted ass and all, and I punched him for saying something he shouldn't have." I grip my phone a little harder and plop back down in my chair.

"Why didn't you just tell us?" Inquires Japan as he takes the seat to my right.

"I didn't feel you guys had to know." I grumble, holding my phone slower to my face.

Japan looks at me in surprise. "Oh." But then his face softens into a small smile. "Well I do hope it works out for the two of you."

"What does she look like?" Russia questions, who sits next to Japan on his other side.

"You didn't see her picture on the Phone when France had it?" I kind of awkwardly ask. Russia and I don't normally talk much, so it feels weird talking to him like this.

Russia shakes his head, smiling childishly. "Nyet, I did not."

"Oh . . . alright then . . ." I unlock my phone's screen and show him my wallpaper.

He leans in and studies the picture for a second before backing off, his smile never once leaving his face. "She is quite nice looking. I wish you the best of luck, comrade."

"AMERICA HAS A GIRLFRIEND! AMERICA HAS A GIRLFRIEND! AMERICA HAS A GIRLFRIEND! AMERICA HAS A GIRLFRIEND!" Chants Italy as he jumps up and down, all full of energy.

I chuckle lightly, leaning into my chair and crossing my arms behind my head. "She isn't my girlfriend yet, Italy." Italy stops, looking at me with confused eyes. "I haven't asked her out. So we're not officially dating."

Italy quickly brightens up again. "Well then ask her! Oh, is she nice?"

"Yeah, she's pretty awesome."

"When will you see her again?"

"Actually, we're meeting up tonight."

"Where are the two of you going to go?"

This question causes me to stop and think for a second. "I dunno little dude, but I'm sure I'll figure it out soon enough." I flip my phone around so it's facing me and read the newest text I received from Alexis.

_Do u wanna hang out tonight? _

It's like this girl can read my mind! I'm thinking about what to reply back when I suddenly get this brilliant idea! "I'll take her somewhere place fancy! Maybe out to eat." I think aloud. Quickly I text her back, telling her to wear nice clothes but I don't say anything about where we're going. I'll have to ask England about some restaurants, but what the hell!

"Hello everyone, sorry for being late I got caught up in some personal business." England says as he walks through the doors into the meeting room. The moment I spot him, I leap up onto my feet and run over to him.

"IGGY!" I practically cling to his arm. "Dude this is your capital; you should know where the best high class restaurants are, right?"

"Well yes, I suppose I do, but what has that got to-"

I don't give him a chance to finish. "Then can recommend one to me? This is for an important night."

Arthur looks at me, stunned, before letting out a sigh. "Since you so politely asked," Sarcasm drips of his words and I scratch the back of my head guiltily. "I'd probably recommend this restaurant in one of my top notch hotels, the dining is-"

"Thank you so much, Iggy!"

"You're going to have to make a reservation though, it's pretty popular, so I'd suggest you do it soon." England walks to meeting table, setting his briefcase onto it. He glances sideways at me, his huge eyebrows furrowing. "What exactly do you have planned, asking me about these kinds of restaurants?"

My lips stretch farther as my grin grows wider. "I'm going to be asking Alexis to be my girlfriend. So I want everything to be perfect." I say excitedly. This is going to be so perfect!

"Okay, m-maybe I could e-even help you g-get ready." England rubs the back of his neck. "Possibly could come-"

"Can ve be deal vith all this relationship crap another time and get down to business?" Both England and I turn to the head of the table, at Germany. His hair slicked back like normal, he glares at all the countries still loitering around. I quickly return to my seat like everyone else does.

England huffs as he takes his seat, muttering. "What's with people and interrupting me today . . ."

Germany clears his throat once he see's everyone seated. "Ve've discovered signs of a new threat to us as nations." The entire room falls silent. That is until Italy starts panicking.

"Oh no! Germany! This is bad, really bad!" Anybody could see he's starting to hyperventilate. The German nation has to slap his hand over the Italian's mouth to stop him.

"Italy, calm down, nothing serious has happened yet." Germany uses his free hand to rub his temples. "Ve do not know who this threat could consist of. Maybe they're humans, maybe countries, maybe even both." By now all the countries begin exchanging worried glances. "For now ve are safe. I believe it vould be best if ve do not get involved more than necessary vith other humans. It vill keep them safe if they don't know much about us."

* * *

><p>Arthurs POV<p>

From my seat next to America's, I sigh and stare at the wall across from me. The world meeting is going how it usually does, with no one paying attention to the country giving their presentation. Of course this meeting is being hosted in my own country, so I have to be paying some attention to what they're saying. But every time I focus on the country speaking, my thoughts drift back to Alex.

I had been with her before the meeting, having gone out for breakfast together, and I'm missing her already. With her clear blues that twinkle when she learns something new or those smiles that just light up the room. Everything about her screams adorable, and I love that about her.

"Angleterre, do you not have anything to say about my magnifique presentation? Ohonhonhon." France sits down in the empty chair to my left. I glance sideways at him and scowl.

"Not right now frog." I look up at the next country preparing to discuss some important issue concerning their country. But that doesn't stop France from continuing to pester me.

He starts poking my cheek and whispering in my ear, an action I find so disgusting. "Oh mon ami, have you heard about Amérique's petit amour? It seems that he haz fallen hard for zis girl." I slap his head away, my scowl deepening.

"Yes, yes, I know about her. America and Alexis have become quite close." France stares at me with confused and surprised eyes. "What is it now?" I hiss out lowly, but acidly.

"How did you find out about her and Amérique? He haz only said something about it today, and while you weren't even in ze room." His hand that I had previously slapped away launches into another poking conquest, this time against my arm. "Are you hiding something from me, cher?"

His poking becomes more insistent, each contact irritating me more than the last. When his poking returns back to my cheek I explode. "I personally know her sister and I've met the lass! Now would you stop touching me you bloody frog!" I slam my hands on the table and stand up, knocking my chair backwards. The whole room falls silent at my sudden outburst. America looks up from his texting, just as surprised as everyone else. "Oh bollocks." I grumble.

All the countries stare at me and I blush bright red at the attention. Germany clears his throat and glares at me. "England this isn't the time to be playing around! Now sit in your chair and pay attention!" Without another word, the meeting resumes (though a little awkwardly). I straighten up my chair and sit down, giving France the deadliest death glare I could muster.

"Mon ami, zat was not my fault. I was merely asking you a simple question." When he doesn't get a response from me, he changes the subject. "So you know ze girl's sister? Is she as beautiful as Amérique's girl? You wouldn't mind taking me to meet her would you?" I twitch from the effort it's taking to contain my temper.

"Frog, it would be in your best interest to drop this right now while I still have control over myself." America glances over at us, still confused about what's going on between us.

He immediately starts questioning me. "Dude, England, what's up? You're like looking pretty mad there."

"It's bleeding nothing America. Just go back to that bloody phone of yours." America huffs, but does as I tell him (which is pretty strange of him). France on the other hand picks up where he left off.

"Come now, Angleterre, amour must be shared non?"

"Bugger off."

"Now, now, no need to get mad. We can share her if you want?" That did it.

"YOU BLOODY ARSEHOLE!" I lunge towards France and punch him the jaw with all my strength. The force of my punch knocks him right out of his chair and onto the ground. "Keep Alex out of your dirty fantasies!"

Germany loses his temper and yells at me. "ENGLAND! OUT!" He points to the door leading out of the meeting room. "NOW!" With as much dignity and pride as I can muster in that kind of situation, I shuffle my papers into my suitcase and head out the door. America stands up as I pass him, pocketing his iphone.

"Dudes, I know this meeting is important and all, but I got plans that need to be dealt with. Don't worry; the hero will be at the next meeting!" Then he proceeds to grab my arm and drag me out of the meeting room and down the hall.

"Let me go you git!" Of course the bloody American ignores me! "Where are you taking me?!" We pass multiple doors and halls, moving towards the building's exit. "The meeting is still going on you know!"

"Iggy, chill out. We have something that requires our full attention, and that is a date with the two most gorgeous girls in the world." Turning a corner, we spot the exit and walk to it.

"My name is not Iggy, you prat! And I never made any plans with Alex for another date!" I try to argue with him.

America rolls his eyes at me and laughs, as the American would say, 'heroically'. "Come on, you have her number right?" I nod slowly. "Then just text her and ask her if she wants to go out with us. Tell her to wear something fancy, like I told Alexis, and that we'll pick em up around eight."

"And where exactly are we taking them?" I snatch my arm out of his grip and exit through the glass doors by my own will. "Does it have anything to do with the question you asked me while I was entering the meeting room?"

"Yup! We'll be taking them to that restaurant you suggested, it'll be awesome hahaha." With a fresh scowl on my face, I fish out my cell phone from my pants front pocket. Though my scowl instantly melts away at the sight of my phone's background. It's a picture of Alex sitting in the middle of a grassy clearing smiling up at the sky. At the angle the shot was taken it makes her look so peaceful and happy, just one glance at it and my bad mood disappears. America taps me on the shoulder. "That is one sweet picture! Where is that place? I totally want to bring Alexis there!"

I shove him away, my bad mood returning in mere seconds. "Didn't I teach you that it's impolite to look over ones shoulder? Besides, why should I tell a git like you about this special place?"

"Oh come on! Pllllleeeeeaaaasssseeee!?"

"No. I'm sorry America, but this place is only for Alex and me, no one else." America pouts and I turn back to my cell phone, opening a blank text box. I type in Alex's number and then the message.

_Do you have anything planned this evening, Alex?_

I watch the sent screen disappear and only have to wait a couple of minutes before my phone vibrates. "That was quick."

_I'm heading to a lecture in a_ _little bit, but that ends around 4, so I should be free later in the evening. Why?_

As soon as I finish reading her text, I send her a reply.

_If you have the time, we could get together. I'll pick you up around 8 pm, and don't forget to wear something nice._

"Alright, I hope she accepts." America slaps my back hard and starts laughing obnoxiously again.

"Don't worry dude. I've seen the way she looks at you; she has no reason to refuse. And coming from the hero, it's the truth." I roll my eyes and open my mouth to retort back, but the vibrations from my phone stop me.

_Sure, I'll see you then. _

"Told you so!" I smack the back of his head before stomping towards my car. "Hey Iggy! Wait up!"

"Shut up, you tosser. If you keep on talking nonsense then I'll refrain from helping you tonight." America gasps loudly as he walks to the passenger side of my car.

"You have to help me! I don't know what I would do without you, Artie!"

Again with the nickname nonsense! "Alfred, for the last time my name is neither Iggy nor Artie! It's England or even Arthur!" I start up the engine and drive out of the meeting halls parking lot.

"Pleassseee! You're my only hope!" America looks at me with puppy dog eyes.

With a long, drawn out sigh, I reluctantly agree. "Fine, but you have to agree to stop calling me by those idiotic names!"

"Done! Man this is gonna be such an awesome night!"

With a small smile playing at my lips, I retort. "Whatever you say."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

Alfred's POV

"Artie, do I really have to wear . . . this?" I say, wildly gesturing to the tuxedo I was practically forced into by Arthur. The thing is so stiff and uncomfortable; I can literally feel it chafing against certain . . . areas.

"You need to wear a tuxedo and look presentable if you want get into the restaurant we're headed to tonight," Arthur grumbles, clearly annoyed with me. "And I thought we agreed you'd drop the stupid nicknames."

My eyes widen in surprise at that reminder. I massage the side of my neck sheepishly. "Oops, forgot about that. Sorry bro."

Arthur releases an exasperated sigh before proceeding to ring the doorbell. Within seconds of ringing the bell, the door opens up. In the doorway stands Alex, clothed in an emerald green dress that ends slightly above her knees. I glance down to the side, right at my brother, and snicker quietly at his expression as he gawks at Alex's appearance.

I struggle to contain my bouts of laughter as Arthur opens and closes his mouth, unable to find the correct words. So I greet her first, since the Brit's currently unable to do much talking. "Hey Alex, is Alexis somewhere in there?"

"Yes," she chuckles, keeping her eyes on my brother the whole time as she points inside. "She's upstairs still getting ready." Clearly she's not paying much attention to me.

Alex steps further outside as I slip past her through the gaping door. As I approach the stairs, I spot Alexis as she works her way down those very stairs. She's clad in a blue dress that's black waist down with a pair of black high heels to match it. Much like how Arthur gawked at Alex's looks, I can't help but stare at Alexis. "Wow . . . Alexis you look-"

"Just shut up and help me down these stairs!" She snarls, obviously frustrated. I grin and rush up to help her.

"The hero will save the day!" I holler, sweeping her off her feet and holding her firm to my chest. Alexis gasps at the sudden feeling of her feet leaving the stairs. She's still as light as I remember her being.

Carrying her down the rest of the stairs, I peek down and catch sight of a smile spreading across her face. "Thanks Alfred," she mumbles as a faint blush dusts her cheeks. I'm not entirely sure why she's blushing, but who cares! It makes her look just that much more adorable!

I stroll back to the front door, with my date safely in my arms, to find Arthur and his date chatting. My brother has this soft smile on his face, a smile that I almost never see, while Alex laughs and blushes. When Alexis and I reach the duo, Arthur peers over at me and rolls his eyes before directing his attention back to Alex. Damn, he's really into her. Usually he'd have scolded me for doing something like holding Alexis this way. I set my date down right next to her sister smoothly.

"You ready to go?" I ask Arthur. The Brit glances over at me and sighs.

"Yes, are you two ready?" He looks to Alex and Alexis and, glancing at each other, they nod. Arthur holds his arm out at an angle for Alex to wrap her hands around, and she does. I peek at my date and she smiles up at me. Holding out my arm just like Arthur had done, I grin broadly when she takes it. The four of us amble to the car, the same one used for our first date.

Arthur opens the passenger seat door next to the driver's seat for Alex as I open the door to the seat behind that one for Alexis. Both of them slide in easily, despite their attire. I shut the door the same time my brother does and we rush over to the opposite side of the car.

Getting into the seat behind Arthur's, I twist my head till my gaze lands on Alexis. She stares intently out the window as we begin the trip to the restaurant. I slowly stretch over and grasp her closest hand in my own. The moment our skin makes contact, she jumps and turns swiftly towards me. After a few seconds pass, she intertwines our hands.

An awkward kind of silence fills the car, only to be broken by the girl holding my hand. "So, Arthur, do you have any hobbies?" Alexis asks, trying to start up a conversation to fill the emptiness.

"Writing and reading have always been a nice pastime for me," he replies, letting out a relieved sigh as a way to break the stillness appears.

I notice Alex in the front passenger seat perk up at the mention of writing and reading. "Are you serious?" Alex questions him, looking at Arthur with unfathomable interest.

"Well, yes. Reading's a nice way to relax at the end of a long day of work," Arthur answers. "And writing is something I've always enjoyed doing." He smiles gently at Alex who returns the smile with a lively one. Alexis glances over at me.

"What about you, Alfred?"

Glad that I finally get her attention, I grin energetically. "I love playing video games and any kind of sports, especially football and soccer, and . . . does eating count as a hobby?" This makes Alexis laugh, the sound of it boosting my confidence. But then again, I'm always confident since I'm a hero!

"I like a lot of sports too! I'm not into playing sports though, more watching them in the stands or on TV," Alexis responds, a smile growing on her face. "And yes, eating counts." A hush falls on the car as Alexis stares out her window for a minute, watching the scenery pass, before she gets this mischievous glint in her eyes. "Hey Arthur, I'm just being curious here but, you and Alfred are pretty close, right?"

Oh no, I'm getting a bad feeling of where this is going. Arthur contemplates her question for a second. "I guess you could say that. We have known each other for some time. Why do you ask?"

Alexis smirks playfully. "Do you happen to know any embarrassing stories about Alfred when he was younger? Has he told you anything?" My face turns beet red. Yup, this really isn't going in a good direction.

Arthur taps the steering wheel as he hums, a thoughtful expression on his face. I try to interrupt him before he could spout any of my secrets. "You know, my stories really aren't that interesting. Why don't we talk about-" My efforts are for nothing as Arthur easily continues, spilling the dirt on me to the girls.

"He did wet the bed multiple times in his young age, but I'm positive that all children have done that . . . Hmm, let's see," the Brit murmurs, seconds later he chuckles softly. "There was a time where he went through a gangster stage. It was comical really. His pants always falling down to his heals and he would wear the most ridiculous glasses with all sorts of jewelry on his hands and around his neck." My face grows redder with each mention of some detail from my past. "Generally I thought jewelry was meant mainly women, guess I was proven wrong."

When he finishes I execute my revenge by striking back with a dirty secret of his. "Well Arthur had green hair once! He'd wear ripped clothes and had piercings," I blurt out. Alexis erupts with laughter, clutching her stomach, and Alex trembles with the strain of contained giggles. I lean sideways to spot Arthur with a pink face, scowling out the window.

"Piercings? You had piercings?" Alex asks, struggling to keep a straight face for very long. "What kind of piercings?" Arthur sighs, his facial features relaxing somewhat, and peeks at her from the corner of his eyes.

"Mmhm, I did indeed have piercings. A lip ring, a few of them in both my ears, and one on my tongue." Alex's face contorts into mild disgust as he mentions a tongue piercing. "It was popular at the time," Arthur clarifies. "Do you really mean to tell us that neither of you girls went through such a phase?" He asks, glancing at Alex then into the rearview mirror at Alexis.

Alexis scrunches up her face as she thinks and then suddenly snaps her fingers. "I remember now, I actually went through a bit of a nature freak stage in the past. During that time I was a vegan, and a major tree hugger."

"A vegan!? Are you serious!?" My face morphs into a horror stricken expression just from the thought of being vegan. I can't even imagine what it would be like, never being able to eat meat. No meat, no hamburgers! That's like a living nightmare!

"Yeah, I'm 100% serious. Thinking about it now, I don't think I started eating meat again until I turned sixteen. Right, Alex?" Alexis explains, looking over the headrest of the seat in front of her at Alex.

To be able to see her sister while answering, Alex twists her torso around. "Yup, though I didn't really know you were a vegan until a few months before you stopped. It definitely took me for surprise when you told me, that I know for sure." As she concludes, Alexis reaches over and pokes her shoulder repetitively.

"Nah, I think your phase was without a doubt more shocking than mine. Although, it was probably more shocking to me because I knew how you were before you changed." Alex rolls her eyes.

"You're over exaggerating. I just started to prefer books over spending time with my friends and had my mind set on school. It wasn't that much of a change," she grumbles, crossing her arms in front of her.

At that, Alexis chuckles. "'Not much of a change' you say. You were a social butterfly before you turned geek all of a sudden. I swear, when I came over that summer I thought someone had gone and brainwashed you to act that way." Alex scoffs at her explanation.

"I swear your overdramatizing the issue, and you know that phase had a lot of perks to it. I was able to skip a grade because of all that studying." She smiles triumphantly but it quickly dies down and she rubs at her forearms. "I guess we all know now that we were a bit . . . 'different' when we were younger."

After Alex says that, Arthur drives the car into the parking lot of a high class, elaborate looking, hotel. He gets the car as close to the entrance as he could and then turns off the ignition. All of us open our individual doors and climb out. Arthur and I circle the car to meet the girls on their side. "Hey, Artie, you know your way around this place, right?" I ask him. The Brit spins around almost instantly and looks at me with crazed eyes. "What?"

"Artie?" Alex giggles. "That's a really cute nickname! Can I call you that too, Arthur?" She asks sweetly, batting her eyelashes at him. Arthur looks at her for a second, feeling his resolution crumbling, and smiles weakly.

"Anything for you, my love." He holds out his arm like he had done approximately 20 minutes ago and she drapes her hands around it snuggly. They stroll on ahead into the hotel. I glance at Alexis and grin.

"You can call me Alfie, if you want that is," I tell her. She smiles her always beautiful smile, eyes sparkling joyously.

"I think I'll do just that, _Alfie_." She walks over and rises onto the tips of her toes, pecking my lips lovingly. Then Alexis grasps my hand tightly and starts dragging me along with her through the entrance of the hotel.

* * *

><p>Arthur P.O.V.<p>

The interior of the hotel is just as beautiful as the last time I had been there. Glass chandeliers hang from the ceiling, the shards of glass reflecting light against the black and white marble floor. I peek down at Alex, who's still holding onto my arm, and smile tenderly when I see her gazing around with wide eyes. As we approach the entrance to the restaurant, I nudge her slightly to gain her attention.

"What do you think of this place, love?" It takes a moment for her to peel her eyes away from her surroundings and stare up at me in awe.

"I'm wondering how on earth you can afford to bring us somewhere this extravagant! I've never before been in such a place in my entire life!" I chuckle at her childishly happy expression. Her grip on my arm tightens as she rests her head against my shoulder. "Thank you, though, for inviting us, Artie."

I feel a nerve twitch as she uses that wretched nickname Alfred always called me. But it doesn't seem as bad when Alex is the one using it. "This is nothing, I'm just glad you're happy." I hear Alfred's obnoxious laugh from behind us and figure that Alexis and that git have finally caught up. Before we go any farther, I stop and turn us around to the sight of Alexis dragging the American along. "Alfred, do try to keep your voice down while we're here. You have a tendency of raising your voice when you get overly excited."

Alfred straightens up and wraps the arm Alexis had been using to drag him by around her waist, grinning like a fool. "Dude, I totally do not raise my voice when I'm excited!" I roll my eyes and point at him with my free hand.

"Then what do you call what you're doing right now, idiot?" I swear Alfred's smile only grows as he answers.

"I'm just using my hero voice, nothing wrong with that!" Next to him, Alexis sniggers. "Now can we get to the restaurant or is there anything else you want to nag about?"

This git really can be so frustrating to deal with! I rub at my temples, feeling a headache coming. "Alexis, please be a dear and control that man while we're in the restaurant. I fear he'll do something stupid if there isn't at least one person watching him constantly."

Alexis mock salutes and grins just as foolishly as Alfred is doing at present. "Yes, captain!" I let out a long sigh and shake my head, as both Alexis and Alfred burst out into fits of laughter. Tapping on my arm brings my attention back to Alex, who is smiling at me sympathetically.

"Relax, if anything goes wrong we're here to deal with it. Besides, this is meant to be a date they should be allowed to have some fun." I return her smile but it quickly turns into a frown.

"What about you? Aren't you having fun?" The way she had worded her words made it seem like she wasn't having any fun.

Alex starts pulling me in the direction of the restaurant when Alfred begins complaining that he was starving and was going to die if he didn't get anything to eat soon. She whispers so softly that I struggle to hear her. "When I'm with you, I'm always having fun." When I notice her face colored red as she speaks I can't help blushing myself.

"O-oh u-um, t-that's good then!" I can't help stuttering, her words had caught me off guard. Instead of replying back, Alex squeezes my arm. It doesn't take much longer till we're stepping into the vicinity of the restaurant.

Alfred, with his arm still around Alexis, walks up to desk and smiles brightly at the hotel worker. "We have a reservation under Jones." The worker glances down at a clipboard in his hands before looking back up at all of us.

"Is this Jones, party of four?" His British accent isn't too strong so I assume he wasn't born in my country.

"Yup, that's us!" Alexis laughs and Alfred tightens his grip on her hip affectionately. The host looks at the two then at Alex and me behind them. He smiles slightly before gesturing in front of him.

"Please follow me then." At his gentlemanly manners, I feel a surge of pride for the people of my country. The inside of the restaurant is brightly lit, decorative paintings and drapes hanging here and there. As we're led past small tables filled with men and women dressed in lavish attires, you truly get the feeling of how high class this place is. Finally, the host stops at an empty table with four comfortable looking chairs surrounding it. "Here we are."

I smile at the young man. "Thank you." He merely nods before taking his leave. As he leaves, I pull out a chair for Alex to sit herself on. From the corner of my eyes, I notice Alfred doing the same for Alexis. "Here you are, my lady." Alex blushes deeply, smiling shyly.

"T-thank you." She sits down on the chair, carefully so that her dress doesn't ride up. With her seated, I take my own seat next to her. Alfred plops down in the chair on my other side so that Alex is at my left, him at my right, and Alexis across from me.

Glasses of water are already in front of each of us, having been placed on the table before hand. I notice Alex reaching for hers and taking a tentative sip from it. Her face is still slightly flushed but now it's less prominent. Soon enough a middle aged women in a waitress outfit comes up to our table and sets down a menu in front of each of us.

She smiles warmly as she does so. "Hello, my names Mary and I'll be your server today." From a small pocket in her apron she takes out a pad and pen. "Would you like to start off this lovely evening with a couple of drinks?" I glance around the table, and nod at the waitress.

"Drinks would be splendid." Since tonight's an important night, I decide against ordering any type of alcohol from the start. "An ice tea for me, unsweetened." Alfred stares at me with wide eyes, which I ignore. "Alex?" I look to my left, watching Alex concentrate on the drink menu before her.

"Hmm, I think I'll get ice tea as well, unsweetened." A smile plays at my lips as she orders the same thing I do. I reach across the table and lay my larger hand over her small, delicate one, squeezing it gently. She turns to me, surprised at the contact, but smiles nonetheless.

Alfred, however, has to ruin the sweet moment by shouting out his order. "Coke for me!" I reluctantly take my hand away from hers and scowl at the bumbling idiot.

"Alfred!" My voice comes out as a low hiss. "What did I tell you about keeping your voice down?!" He sticks his tongue out at me then grins at Alexis. "Still such a child . . ." I can't help but mutter. Mary laughs good heartedly and writes down his order swiftly.

She then glances down at Alexis, her pen hovering above the pad, ready to write down her order. "And what about you miss? What would you like to have to drink?"

"Well, I'm sure Alex wouldn't want me to get any alcohol." Alexis glances at Alex who nods agreeably. "So I guess I'll have an ice tea too, but make mine sweetened."

Alfred stares at her in horror. "Why would you order tea!? It's nasty stuff." I kick his shin under the table, telling him to shut up without words. The kick really doesn't affect him too much, but I do see him wince. He glares at me which I return venomously.

"I can't help it, my sister got me hooked on the stuff the moment I started living with her." She points accusingly at Alex next to her. "If you want to accuse someone, accuse her for making me like the drink."

"Hey! No! Don't go putting the blame on me for something like that." Alex frowns, but the hint of a smile in her eyes gives away her amusement. "I may have made you drink it but I didn't make you start liking it." The two sisters glare at one another, but it quickly transforms into smiles and then they're laughing.

Mary, still with a smile, repeats our orders to us. "So three ice teas, one sweetened the others not, and a coke?" I nod and the waitress pockets the pad and pen. "Alright, your drinks should be out shortly with a basket of bread for you to munch on." With that, she leaves and the two sisters slowly manage to stop their laughing.

Another awkward silence descends over the table, much like how it was in the car. Though this one being broken by my own date, Alex. She picks up the food menu and looks it over. "So . . . what are you guys thinking about getting?"

I open my mouth to respond to her question earnestly, but Alfred beats me with another one of his outbursts. "Hamburger!" His eyes are bright with glee as he starts jumping up and down in his chair. I couldn't control myself and smack him upside the head. He whines as he clutches his head in the area where I hit him. "What was that for?"

"Two things; one, keep your voice down! And two, this is an upper class restaurant, they don't have those atrocious things your country calls food!" Alfred pouts and stares down at his plate, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"At least my country has food that's actually edible . . ." I manage to stop myself from hitting the man again, but glower at him dangerously.

Alex and Alexis watch the little argument with wide eyes. Though at Alfred's last comment, Alexis snickers quietly. My shoulders slump and I let out a deep breath. "Let's not argue tonight Alfred." My words must have taken him by surprise since he didn't really say anything back.

I look over at Alex and see her staring at me with curious eyes. When she notices me looking at her, tilting my head in a questioning manner, she smiles slightly. "You really have one sharp glare, not even I'm able to do that, even when I'm at my maddest." I rub the back of my head bashfully, not really knowing what to say. But Alfred answers for me, though with the one thing he shouldn't have said.

"I think he got it from his pirate age." My eyes widen as I realize what the American had said. I slap my hand over his mouth so that he wouldn't start rambling, like he does a lot when he says something he shouldn't have, trying to cover up what he let slip but only managing to make things worse.

Taking a peek at Alex and her sister, they both have these confused expressions on their faces. "Pirate age? What does he mean?" Alex questions. I laugh nervously, feeling myself start to sweat.

"Haha, i-it's nothing really. What he meant to say was pirate phase! When I was younger I had this obsession with pirates. That's it." Alex's look of confusion quickly morphs into suspicion, and I pray that she wouldn't think too much of it.

"I thought you went through something like a punk rock phase?" Her eyes take on a calculating glint, which I hope didn't mean much.

"Why yes I did, but before that I had my obsession with pirates. It's probably where Alfred thought I got my temper from." I glare at the American, my hand still covering his mouth, and he looks apologetic back at me.

Before Alex could question me further, Mary returns with our drinks and a basket of bread. "There you are, your drink orders and bread." She sets the drink in front of the respective person, while placing the basket of bread in the center of the table. "Have you figured out what you'd like to eat?"

I had completely forgotten about that, too busy with dinner conversations! While everyone else orders their food, I quickly scan the menu. This time Alexis orders first. "I'll have a medium sized lobster salad." Mary scribbles that down speedily.

Alex takes a side glance at me before giving her order. "Could I just have some Pasta Puttanesca?" Mary nods, writing that down. "Thank you." Alfred, who I had released upon the waitresses arrival, takes a moment to study the menu.

"Hmm, well if you don't have hamburgers I'm gonna have to go with a Rib-eye Steak." He grins at me proudly and I shake my head slowly. The waitress smiles as she put his order on the pad, lastly looking at me.

"The simple fish and chips will do for me." Mary gets that down and then looks up from her pad.

"Alright your food should be out when it's ready." She leaves once again and another silence falls upon our table. Yet this one isn't broken easily. There are a couple of attempts from Alfred and Alexis, but none of them end successful. Even when Mary comes back with our food a silence remains, only broken by compliments to the chef. It isn't till we're all done with the main course and the debate on whether to get dessert arises.

At the mention of dessert, Alfred put his fist down. "We're getting it, I'm not taking no for an answer!" Alexis has her thumbs up and grins wickedly, she's all for getting dessert. I on the other hand, couldn't possibly eat another bite.

"Alfred, if you really want to get dessert then go for it. None of us are going to even try stopping you." The American cheers softly, finally he got it in his thick skull to quiet down. I sigh and sit back in the chair, watching Alfred grab a dessert menu and setting it inbetween Alexis and him.

"Choose anything from the menu, Alexis. We'll get whatever you want." Alexis's face brightens up and she puts all her focus into finding a dessert she thinks looks good. I could tell from Alfred's expression that he had a secret purpose behind letting her choose, but I really didn't want to know.

Instead, I glance over towards Alex and find her staring longingly at a second dessert menu. I lean in closer and whisper. "Is there something you want?" She noticeably jumps; blushing as she turns and see's me nearer to her than a couple of seconds ago.

"U-um, I was just thinking that the hazelnut truffles looked really good . . . But we don't have to get them!" I gaze at her flustered face and how she continues to peek at the menu. From those signs I can figure out that she really did want to get those truffles.

"Nonsense, you seem to want them so we'll get them." She looks at me in surprise but soon smiles gratefully. Buying the dessert is well worth seeing Alex smile, instead of that solemn face she had for most of the dinner.

Alexis's cries of delight attract our attention from each other to her. One of her fingers taps at a dessert name several times. "This one! Can we get this one?!" Alfred glances over her shoulder, resting his chin on it.

"Hmm, strawberry shortcake is it? That's what you want?" Alexis nods her head frantically. I swear the amount of energy that girls has is basically on par with Alfred's. "Then that's what we'll get!"

Mary, who had been standing next to our table the entire time, questions us on our order. "So, that's a strawberry shortcake and hazelnut truffles?" Alfred grins up at the waitress, his chin still resting on Alexis's shoulder.

"Yup, that should be everything." With a nod, Mary leaves our table once again. As she leaves the area, the host that had shown us to our table enters once again, only this time leading along a group of people I had hoped not to see tonight.

At first I didn't believe it, but the moment I hear their laughs I knew it was them. I glance towards Alfred, sadly he hasn't yet noticed. He's too busy trying to flirt with Alexis. Though his attempts in my opinion are pathetic, they somehow still make Alexis smile and laugh. But that isn't the issue right now! There are more important things at hand!

I nudge Alfred's forearm lightly, to gain his attention, hoping he might perceive the small touch. Unfortunately he doesn't get it. For my next attempt, I try something a little more drastic and elbow him in the stomach with all my strength. That got his attention right away . . . and relieved a little bit of my stress too. Alfred hisses out sharply and doubles over, Alexis gazing at him with concern.

"What the hell was that for!?" He demands harshly. Before Alfred can hit me back, which I'm sure he would have loved to do, I grab his chin and force him to look at the group following the host. He takes in what I had wanted to show him and pales almost instantly. "Oh shit!"

I let go of his chin to cuff him on the back of the head, glowering. "Watch your language, you imbecile!" Alfred rubs the back of his head, glaring at the table but fortunately keeping his mouth shut.

Regrettably, though, my own outburst attracts the attention of the four. They spot us and start heading in our direction, a majority having smirks on their faces. Except for the one trailing behind, he's scowling, and the one pestering the scowling man. The one in front address us as soon as he gets within range. "Amérique! Angleterre! What a pleasant surprise, meeting you here." I grimace as he says our country names in French; I really hope that neither of the girls understand French.

"Francis, what the bloody hell are you doing here?" The man next to him laughs, smirking devilishly.

"Kesesese Francy pants here said this restaurant had some good food even though it's, you know, English." He laughs while I scoff. "So, since Francis says it's so good, it should be good enough for the awesome me to eat!"

Alfred, who had been staying silent so far, decides to join in the conversation. "Dude, Gilbert, I'm still way more awesome than you." Gilbert glares at Alfred.

"Only in your dreams, Dummkopf."

Alex tugs at my sleeve, her eyes flitting from me then to Francis and Gilbert and back to me. "Do you know these men?" I smile at her tiredly.

"Sadly, yes. They're . . . colleagues from work I suppose." Francis hears this and looks over at the two of us.

"Well who do we have here? Is this your petite amour, Angleterre?" He strides to her side and seizes her hand, kissing the top of it softly. His actions are obviously making Alex uncomfortable, though the frog himself doesn't perceive that.

When he kisses her hand again, I growl at him and snatch Alex's hand away from him. "Francis, don't you dare go putting your disgusting frog germs on her." Francis smirks before holding his hands up in front of him in mock surrender.

"Possessive are we?" I glare daggers at him, but he doesn't notice as he has already turned his attention towards Alexis. "And this must be her lovely sister, Alexis! Am I right?"

He reaches for her hand like he had done with Alex, but his wrist is grabbed in a strong grip. "Hahaha, dude, don't even think about it." Francis looks up into Alfred's smiling face, but hidden behind that cheerful smile is a warning. When Alfred squeezes the Frenchman's wrist to the point of bruising, he gets that warning.

"Hey bastardo's, you promised me pasta damn it! So where the hell is the fucking pasta?!" The scowling man shoves his way to the front, glaring at Francis.

"Lovi, please don't use such strong language in front of these señoritas!" The last man makes his way to the scowling one. He takes a second to wave to us. "Hello, mi amigo's."

Alex and Alexis are the only ones that return the wave, even if it's slightly unsurely. I notice Alex take a closer look at the Italian and, before I could say anything, she addresses him. "Lovi is your name, right?"

"Don't call me Lovi! It's Lovino! I hate that stupid nickname and the tomato bastard knows it!" Lovino yells, though his yelling is mostly directed at the Spanish man than anyone else.

"But Lovi is such a cute nickname! Why won't you let me call you that?" The Spanish man whines. Francis saunters over to the Spanish man and wraps an arm around the man's shoulders.

"It's because, dear Antonio, our little Lovino is too shy and embarrassed to say he likes it-."

Lovino marches forward as Francis explains and punches him in the stomach with all his power. "I'm not shy or embarrassed, bastard! That nickname is stupid and if I hear it one more time from anyone they're going to have to deal with my fist in their mouth!" He shakes his fisted hand in the air to emphasize his words.

I applaud the Italian in my mind for getting the Frenchman to shut up in a way that pains him. Even Alfred's grinning normally again. Alex stares at Francis, now crouching down with his arms hugging his stomach, with slight worry before shrugging and returning her attention to the Italian.

"Okay, Lovino then." The named man turns towards her, his annoyed expression quickly melting into a smile. Damn Italians and their habit of flirting with every girl they see. "You mentioned you were going to get some pasta, and I just had some pasta cooked here. So I wanted to tell you that the pasta in this place isn't that bad, it's actually pretty good."

Her words make Lovino brighten up slightly, but he covers that promptly with a scowl. "It won't be as good as the pasta mio fratello and I make, now that's what I call pasta!" He says smugly, though his next words come out as a mumble, a blush dusting his cheeks. "But if you say it's alright, then I guess I'll trust you on that."

This really isn't looking good for Alfred and me.

Right then Mary decides to pop in with our ordered desserts, setting them in front of us with a smile. Both Antonio and Gilbert stare at the desserts, practically drooling over them. I get this feeling they're going to try something. And I was right.

Gilbert snatches a fork from the table, the one belonging to Alexis. "This cake looks awesome enough for the awesome me to eat!" He stabs the cake and cuts a big chunk from it, swiftly stuffing it into his mouth. Alexis and Alfred both stare at him like he just did the stupidest thing possible, which he probably did.

"Just cause you think you're awesome you take a bite out of MY cake?!" Alexis grabs the fork out of his hand and pulls the plate of strawberry shortcake away from him. "Let me repeat myself." She points to herself. "My." Then at the shortcake in front of her. "Cake."

"Dude, that was totally not awesome!" Alfred glares at him.

All Gilbert did is shrug, staring at Alexis. "Little lady, I don't think I'm awesome, I _know_ I'm awesome cause I'm Prussian. Which automatically makes me awesome! There's no use denying it." I roll my eyes, here we go again. Alfred grimaces, clearly getting annoyed with the crimson eyed man.

"Prussian? I've never even heard of such a heritage before." Gilbert gapes at her in incredulity.

"Come on! Eastern Germany?!" He only gets a blank look from her. "The country that came before Germany!?" Alexis merely looks at him funny like at that.

Alfred smiles arrogantly at him, acting completely childish as always. "She doesn't know what she doesn't, man." Gilbert throws his hands in the air in defeat before pointing at Alexis.

"Just know that I am Prussian which makes me awesomer than all of you combined!" He gestures to all four of us, then back at Alexis. "One day you shall recognize my awesomeness!" I shake my head, not even going to bother with him, and turn my attention to Alex. Noting how Antonio is staring at the truffles placed in front of her, I can tell he wants some of them.

"Don't even think about it, Antonio. These are for her only, not you." I tug the plate so that it's farther away from the Spanish man but still within Alex's reach. Antonio takes on the look of a kicked puppy, but I ignore it and smile at Alex. "Go on, love, you wanted these so go ahead and try them."

She looks at the truffles, at Antonio, then back at the truffles. Somehow I know perfectly well what's going through her mind. And I really didn't like it. Not one bit.

". . . you're too kind for your own good, poppet." She glances up at me, not having understood my words. When she sees my feeble smile, a light goes off in her mind and she smiles dazzlingly.

She leans forward and kisses my nose sweetly. "Thank you Artie." I cringe by habit at the nickname, but nonetheless keep a smile on my face. Alex picks up the plate of truffles and sets them in front of Antonio. "If you really want one, then you can have some." I grit my teeth, but say nothing. Antonio stares at the truffles then at Alex, a wide grin breaks out on his face. He lunges forward and embraces Alex tightly.

"Muchas gracias, chica! You are too nice!" I may have agreed in letting her give some truffles to him, but his affectionate nature crosses the line. As I move to take action, a startled yelp coming from Alexis's direction gains everyone's attention. Looking over, I scowl at the scene.

Francis is once again on the floor with Alexis standing up out of her chair. She's glaring at the Frenchman, her face completely flushed red. I can't tell if it's from anger or embarrassment, maybe a little bit of both. Though, it didn't matter much to Alfred, who rises up slowly from his chair. His face doesn't exactly look like one of an infuriated man, but the look of seriousness surprises everyone, except for Alex and Alexis.

"Francis, what the fuck did you just do to my date?" His voice comes out dangerously low and grim, not even a hint of his usual joking manner. Francis stops his progress at getting up and starts trembling vaguely.

"N-nothing, mon a-ami! I-I was just trying to say h-hello!" If the atmosphere hadn't been so tense I probably would have laughed at the Frog's terror filled face.

Alexis looks away, crossing her arms tightly in front of her. "That's some way of saying hello . . ." Alfred glances from Alexis back to Francis, his expression darkening. Alexis see's this and quickly reaches out to the American. "Alfie, please don't hurt him. He may have acted like a complete pervert but I absolutely hate violence." She looks at him pleadingly and Alfred's expression instantly softens.

"Okay . . . as long as you're alright." He pulls her into a big bear hug, glaring at Francis over her head. By then, Antonio has released Alex and she gets up off her chair and makes her way to her sister.

I rub at my temples and stand up. "Well, _gentleman,_ thank you for gracing us with your presence," my voice practically drips with sarcasm as I say this. "But I believe it's time we left."

Alfred doesn't say anything, instead he starts leading Alexis towards the exit. Some of the other people who're dining at the restaurant watch the retreating couple, only to return to their own conversations when Alfred catches them staring and glares. I glance at Alex and frown when I see her distressed face.

She notices me looking at her worriedly and attempts to smile. "I'm fine, if you're wondering." I don't believe her, but decide to keep my mouth shut. Reaching out my hand to her, she takes it appreciatively. I take one last moment to send a seething glare at Francis before escorting Alex out of the restaurant. As we leave them, I note that the BTT all have guilty expressions, minus Lovino who looks plainly pissed off again.

As we get closer to the entrance of the restaurant, I spot Alfred with Alexis near the cashier, most likely paying for the dinner. By the time we draw near them, Alfred had already paid and looks at us, all smiles again. "Ready?" I've known him long enough to know that he's still pissed at Francis, he just isn't showing it. I nod in response and he and Alexis proceed towards the door, with us following. As we approach the door leading outside, Alexis stumbles.

"Dang it, these high heels are so irritating! I swear on my life that I'm never going to wear another pair for anything!" She reaches down and unfastens the straps on the heels, easily slipping out of them. "You know, I'm just going to go barefoot the rest of the way." The moment she has both heels off, she stoops low to pick them up and then marches out the door.

Alfred hurries to catch up with her, leaving Alex and I behind. I snort softly. "Looks like even Francis's perverted ways can't affect your sister for very long." Alex leans into me heavily.

"Of course, she's a strong girl." I look down at her and she genuinely smiles at me. "No matter what happens she'll just hop right back up and keep going." I hum in understanding. "Come on, we both know those two won't like us just standing here talking." Alex entwines our hands and we exit the hotel, into the night.

When we step outside, we spot the two over by my car. I notice that Alfred has given his jacket to Alexis since it's now currently around her shoulders. Glancing down, I discover Alex trying to suppress a shiver but failing to. So I do the exact thing Alfred did and hand my jacket to her. She takes it, though only with some coaxing from me. I take the car keys out of jacket before Alex puts it on and head to the car to unlock it.

Alex moves closer to Alexis and places her hands on her sister's shoulders, obtaining her immediate attention. "Alexis, what did Francis exactly do to you?" From my peripheral vision I see Alfred twitch at the mention of Francis, but nothing else.

I turn back to the sisters and watch Alexis's face grow bright red. "W-well . . . he . . ."

"You don't have to tell us if you don't want to." Alex stares at her sister in concern as Alexis shakes her head.

"I can say it, it's just . . ." She lets her sentence drift off.

"Alexis?"

Alexis squeezes her eyes shut and rushes out her answer. "While he was saying hi his hand ran up higher on my thigh then I felt comfortable with. It was so disturbing!" I notice Alfred's grip on the car door and yelp.

"Alfred don't you dare dent my car!" He hears my shout and hastily withdraws his hand, looking guiltily at me.

"Sorry about that Artie. Almost lost control of my strength there." He inspects the door and all color drains from his face. My eyes narrow at his reaction.

"Alfred, you better not have done what I think you've done."

He glances at me, his eyes now filled with fear. "Guess i-it was a little too late." I grit my teeth and glare at him spitefully.

"Did you just dent the door of my favorite car?" Alfred swallows loudly, shrinking back.

"Maybe . . ." My vision turns red and I throw good manners out the door.

* * *

><p>AN: We're sorry for not having updated in soo long! :( They brony and I have been a little busy with personnal matters as well as oneshot requests on our quotev account. But don't worry, the next couple of chapters have been written out and only need to be editing. Sadly though, editing takes a couple of days and since schools finally starting up updates may take awhile. Just don't think we've forgotten or dropped this story cause we haven't! Anyway, we hope you enjoy this chapter. Hetalia doesn't not belong to us, nor the characters in it. We only own the story idea and our characters. Please leave a review, they would motivate us sooooo much and we would totally love you if you did! XD Next chapter should be out by next week!

~The Brony and the Hetalian


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 5

Alex's P.O.V.

"Hey, Alexis, you awake?" I knock softly on the door to my sister's room, poking my head inside when I hear no response. Looking around, I discover her still sound asleep in bed. "Oh for goodness sake. . ." To the left, on a chair near the door, lays her dress. Underneath it are the black heels she wore that night. I walk over to the chair, picking up a hanger along the way, and hang the dress up in Alexis's closest. "We wouldn't want this to get all wrinkled, now would we?"

Beneath her piles of blankets, Alexis rolls over, mumbling incoherent words. I turn my head in her direction, waiting to see if she'd wake up without any assistance. When nothing else happens I roll my eyes. The watch I normally have around my wrist clearly reads 9:30 am, about time my little sister should be up and about.

I inspect the lump that is my sister below the blankets, just watching her for a minute to see if she'll wake up on her own. Absolutely nothing ensues. So I throw, with some difficulty, all of the blankets off her, including her favorite fluffy one. The moment they're all off, Alexis curls into herself. I lean in and shake her shoulder firmly. "Alexis, it's time for you to wake up now."

She sluggishly mutters a quiet 'five more minutes' before slipping back into peaceful slumber. Her hands search around, trying to locate at least one blanket to cover herself with. Upon learning there isn't a single one close to her, her hand falls limp. I attempt at shaking her shoulder again only a little harder, but the result is the same.

"If you don't wake up right now I'm going downstairs, grabbing a bucket, filling it with water, and then coming back up here to pour it on you. That is, if you continue to refuse waking up." This time Alexis shoots up out of bed, staring at me with wide, doe like eyes.

"You wouldn't dare!" I shrug, the lack of denial causing Alexis to shudder. "That'd be such a cruel punishment, what I'd ever do to you to deserve that!" She frowns, sticking her lower lip out in a pout.

I laugh a little before reassuring my sister. "Don't worry; I wouldn't do that to you." Pausing, I walk back to the door, stopping in the doorway to look over my shoulder at Alexis. "Though if you hadn't woken up after a few more tries of waking you up nicely, then that's a completely different story."

"Alex!" Her shriek follows me as I head back down the stairs, chuckling to myself. The wall against the stairs, as it winds down, are lined with framed pictures. Most of them pictures of Alexis, me, and dad. But there are some pictures, though few, with Mom. The rest are with my friends and me. I gaze at each frame as I pass them on my way down.

At the bottom of the stairs, standing on the last step, I turn and call to Alexis upstairs. "I'm making eggs! Do you want yours sunny side up or scrambled!?" An answer comes within seconds of my question, though I have to strain my ears to hear it.

"Scrambled!" I nod, but realize soon after that she can't see me. So I quickly yell out an affirmative. The kitchen isn't too far from the stairs, thus I hurriedly walk in and snatch up my apron. Never have I cooked something without my apron on. As I get the strings in the back tied, I shuffle over to the fridge. Upon finally getting the knot done, I open the fridge door and seize the carton of eggs.

On my way to the stove, I grab a pan from a shelf and set it on the stove. I flick the switch on, turning the knob till the temperatures on high. While waiting for the stove plate to heat up, I rifle through the cupboards and take out a small mixing bowl and whisk. With the bowl on the counter, I pick an egg, hit it on the edge of the bowl, and crack it open over it. I repeat this process until there are at least 3 eggs in the bowl.

I begin humming unconsciously as I whisk the contents of the bowl. Grabbing both salt and pepper and shaking them into the eggs, I beat everything together till I consider it good enough. As I finish up mixing, I wave my hand over the pan and feel the heat coming off it. I grasp a spatula from a container and start pouring the eggs into the pan.

Alexis comes stumbling into the kitchen, straightening out her shirt, just as the eggs in the pan sizzle. She looks up at me, stares blankly for a couple of seconds, before her eyes bulge. "Alex! What are you doing!?" I look at her funny like while moving the eggs around with the spatula.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm making us breakfast." My sister crazily waves her hands in the air, making absolutely no sense to me.

"That's what I'm talking about! What are you doing cooking! Don't you burn everything you make!?" I roll my eyes at her exaggeration and point the spatula, dripping with egg yolk, at her.

She lunges forward to snatch the utensil, but I pull it out of her reach before she can get her hands around it. "You were perfectly all right with me cooking when I asked you how you wanted your eggs earlier." Alexis tries to grab for the spatula again, I easily evade her. "Stop that now! Just go sit down, if you continue to distract me the eggs _will_ turn out burnt."

"They'll normally turn out burnt either way," Alexis mumbles as she walks to the island in the center of the kitchen. Tall stools line along one side, where the two of us usually sit down to eat meals. I glare at her before turning back to the stove and stirring the eggs.

Five minutes pass in silence, neither one of us starting up a conversation. That is until the eggs finish cooking and I flip the stove off. "Last night . . . it ended up on a bad note with the boys. Are you okay?" I glance at her while opening up a side cupboard and taking out two white, pristine, plates.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Alexis grins up at me as I set down one of the plates in front of her. "The beginning of the night was a blast! Even when those four guys came, it wasn't that bad. Just that one French man, he really needs to learn to keep his hands to himself."

I laugh and nod agreeably. "I completely agree with you on that. Do you think it has something to do with him being French?" Alexis taps her chin then shakes her head. "No?"

"It's probably just his personality, not all French people act like he does." While I'm searching for some silverware, my sister continues rambling about the other three men. "Then that Prussian guy, seriously have you ever heard of Prussian before?" I shake my head distractedly, still looking for silverware. "Me neither! And then he goes off saying how 'awesome' he is. Sure he may look kind of cool and has a bad boy kind of attitude, but that doesn't make him totally awesome!"

"Found them!" In my hands are two sets of silverware and I hold them in the air triumphantly."Now we can eat."

With eggs, only slightly burnt, on our plates and silverware to eat with, we begin eating our breakfast. "Alex, I'm truly surprised. You were actually able to cook something without burning it to a crisp." She pats my shoulder thoughtfully. "I'm proud of you." I choke on some eggs I had just scooped into my mouth and Alexis smacks my back to help me swallow.

When I'm able to breathe properly again, I stare at my sister next to me with a baffled expression. "I'm not that bad of a cook! I have been living by myself for quite some time! Who else would be doing the cooking besides me?!" I look to side, narrowing my eyes. "If my food really was that bad then I wouldn't even be eating it." My sister rolls her eyes.

"Sometimes your food reaches that bad, Alex." Alexis takes another bite of eggs. "But this time, you did pretty well." Swallowing, she points at me with her fork. "Anyways, what do you think about that Italian and Spaniard? You seemed to have talked to them more than I did."

I think back to the two, humming softly. "They're interesting, that's for sure. Though, we only just met them, and for not too long, I can't make many assumptions. To me Lovino, the Italian, has a bit of a short temper, but I've never met an Italian before so it was a new experience." Alexis chuckles around a mouthful of eggs.

"And the Spaniard? What about him?" I make a face that quickly reverts back into a smile.

"Touchy feely, he's really touchy feely. I've never met a person that has outright hugged a complete stranger." Alexis bursts out laughing, dropping her fork onto her plate. "I'm sure he didn't have any bad intentions but it was so awkward for me! But-" My sister stops laughing, looking at me as I blush bright red. "I-I guess it . . . was worth seeing . . . Arthur a little jealous," I mumble the last part, my face burning up.

Alexis blushes as well, nodding timidly. "Y-yeah, I didn't think that Alfred would get that mad at Francis cause of what he did to me." We sit there for a few minutes, blushing like teenage school girls. Out of the blue Alexis sits up straight and exclaims. "The car ride home! Now that was awkward!"

Her sudden outburst startles me, though I instantly try to stifle some giggles. "You've got that right, that silence was way too thick for my liking. Probably cause Arthur was so pissed off at Alfred for denting his car, nearly killing him when he first found out."

"And we had to stop him from doing that. Well, you had to stop him; he's more likely to listen to you than me." Alexis leans against the back of the chair, staring at the ceiling. "The worst part was the moment we got home." Her face scrutinizes up in a frown. "There was such a tense atmosphere . . . the boys being too angry to even give us a proper goodnight!"

"Arthur was the angry one, Alfred mostly kept silent," I point out to her, releasing a long sigh. "I had hoped that they would have realized it wasn't their fault the night turned out the way it did and acted at least somewhat normal."

Before either of us could continue our conversation, the doorbell rings. I stand up and motion for my sister to remain sitting. She looks at me accusingly. "Did you invite someone over without telling me?"

I roll my eyes at her. "No I didn't. I would have told you if I'd invited someone here." The doorbell rings again, inducing me to walk out of the kitchen and towards the front of my condo. Even though I told Alexis to stay seated, I know that she won't and would follow me to the door. This is exactly what she's doing.

A third ring of bells echoes sooner than I reach the door and open it, revealing the person outside. I gasp and grin widely. Alexis peeks over my shoulder to see the person, shouting out excitedly upon discovering who it is. "Alicia! Long time no see!" I glance behind me to my sister, shaking my head, and then return my attention to Alicia.

"It's been awhile since we last met up, come on in." As I back up and hold the door open for Alicia to enter through, Alexis scampers up and glomps the girl. "Alexis, can you not wait until she gets inside to hug her?" She doesn't answer me. Instead, she releases Alicia and the two of them walk into the condo. I promptly close the door behind them.

Alicia smiles softly, her brown eyes flitting from one of us to the other. "I almost thought that the two of you weren't home. Or that maybe someone had come into your house in the middle of the night and kidnapped you both." My sister and I share a look before staring at our friend.

"Uh I don't really know why anyone would want to kidnap us in the middle of the night. That's seems like a . . . peculiar reason for us not answering." I shift from foot to foot before gesturing to the kitchen. "We were actually just finishing up breakfast." Alicia looks up in surprise, brushing a strand of wavy black hair behind her ear.

"Oh, should I not have come? I can leave and come back at another time."

Alexis shakes her head and smiles. "Nah, like my sister said we're almost done. Come on!" She grasps Alicia's hand and starts towing her in the direction of the kitchen. "It's unbelievable really; Alex actually made food that's edible." My black haired friend looks back to me, the disbelief clear in her eyes.

"That _is_ incredible. I had been planning on adding your food on to the list of top ten deadliest weapons." Her expression is so serious that I can't help but feel slightly depressed.

"That's harsh . . . really harsh you know, Alicia . . ." We reach the kitchen and Alexis takes Alicia to the nearly empty plates we had left behind to answer the door.

She points down to the remaining scraps on my plate. "See! Hardly even burnt, it's a miracle I tell you!" I snatch the plate up and proceed to the trash can.

"Will the two of you stop bad talking about my cooking?! It's perfectly fine!" The rest of my eggs slip into the open trash bin, and as I turn around I witness Alexis and Alicia struggling to control their chuckles. I glare at them, but decide against saying anything more about the subject. We wouldn't want to spark a futile argument. Instead, I change the topic. "So, Alicia," I start off, gaining her attention, "what have you been up to lately?"

The question seems to startle her and she takes a second to think. "Hmm, well, you know, the usual stuff. Studying, part-time job, and of course, plotting for world domination." The last part of her response causes my sister and me to stare at her open mouthed. She notices us staring and smiles slightly, albeit a little bit creepily. "What about the two of you?" Alexis is the first to recover from the shock, so she answers.

"We met some guys and been spending most of our days with them!" Alexis grins, a faint blush dusting her cheeks. "We actually encountered them the day I arrived here. It's like the two of us meeting them was fate!"

I smile as well, finally managing to recover myself. "Indeed, if it wasn't for Alexis's need to go to the comic book store we wouldn't have met them." Alicia notices our happy expression and instantly grows curious.

"These two men seem like interesting people if the two of you have taken such a liking to them." I glance towards Alexis and she looks to me and we both start giggling.

"Oh they definitely are."

* * *

><p>Alexis's P.O.V.<p>

"So, after Francis was being, ya know, a little _too_ friendly, Alfred gets this really menacing look in his eye and he looks at Francis-" I'm explaining to Alicia but get interrupted by the doorbell ringing for the fourth time today. I sigh and glance at Alex, who shrugs nonchalantly at the unspoken question in my eyes. She stands up to answer the door, while I stay at the table to continue talking to Alicia. "Long story short, I think Alfred would have murdered the guy if I hadn't told him I was okay."

I can faintly hear Alex opening the front door and gasp. "H-Hello, Arthur. Alfred," She stutters. Immediately after hearing those names, I shoot up and rush to the door. There I see our dates from last night standing outside with bouquets of flowers in their hands.

Dashing past Alex, I tackle the clueless Alfred. "Alexis! What are you doing?!" Alex hollers as Alfred falls back onto his butt with me on top of him. The flowers he had been holding fall out of his hands as he lets them go to wrap his arms around me protectively.

"Hi!" I squeal loudly, my eyes bright with happiness.

"Wassup Lex? Why so excited?" He teases, chuckling humorously.

"I'm just so happy to see you here! Oh but why exactly are you here?" I ask. Alfred grins smugly as he reaches for the flowers and presents them to me. I see the red tulips and smile. "How'd you know tulips are my favorite flowers?"

"Lucky guess," He replies with a cheeky grin. Finally noting our current position we're in, I quickly get off of him and stand up. The American does the same and hands over the flowers once he's on his feet. The flowers are the perfect shade of red and I can't help but giggle into the flowers.

Alfred strides closer to me and winds an arm around my waist snugly. I watch Arthur hand my sister a bouquet of red and white roses with his face flushed. She smiles sweetly, sniffing their scent, and blushing a soft shade of pink. Behind her, Alicia walks up and stares at everybody kind of awkwardly.

Taking notice of Alicia's presence, Alex backs away from Arthur and motions to our friend. "Arthur, Alfred, this is Alicia. Alexis and I became friends with her when we were younger. So she's like a childhood friend." Alicia smiles slightly and waves at the boys. Arthur nods while Alfred waves back. A little reluctantly, I leave Alfred's side and make my way to her, but he actually faithfully follows behind me.

"Alicia, this is Alfred, my boyfriend." Alicia smiles and nods in acknowledgement. When I turn around to look at Alfred, he has this stunned look on his face. "What? Aren't you my boyfriend?" He grins and blushes faintly.

"Yeah, I guess I am your boyfriend," Alfred replies merrily, taking my hand and squeezing it warmly. I glance at Alex from the corner of my eye; she's already taken Arthur's hand and is making her way over to us.

"And this is Arthur. M-my . . . u-um . . . b-boyfriend," she stammers with a shy smile. Almost instantly Arthur's face bursts into a deep shade of red and he looks at Alex, pleasantly surprised.

Alicia smiles at all four of us knowingly. "Well, I must be going. Still have a ton of planning to do; you guys know how long world domination takes to plan right?" She chuckles, making her way past us and out the door.

"See ya Alicia!" I shout, removing my hand from Alfred's to wave it wildly in her direction. Unlike me, Alex does her normal, slightly girly, wave towards her. After Alicia gets into her car and drives away, Alex turns to the boys.

She gestures inside and asks, "Would you two like to come in?" Both of them nod and we walk indoors, into the living room. "Alexis, why not show Alfred around the house?" Alex questions with a wink directed at me. I nod eagerly and grab Alfred's hand. We first head to the kitchen to get a vase for the flowers, and then I lead him up the stairs and into my room.

"This is my room!" I exclaim excitedly. Alfred grins as he begins walking around the vicinity, inspecting everything with a close eye. Settling the tulips in the vase, I set them on top of my dresser. I've personalized the room a bit more since I arrived, trying to make it feel a little homier. A few pictures of friends and family here and there, along with posters of my favorite bands. Alfred picks up one of the photographs on one of my shelves.

"Who is this?" He asks, lifting the photo a little higher. Prancing over, I discover that the picture he's holding is the picture of my old Golden Retriever I had back in the States.

I quickly reply to his question, looking at the photo sadly. "That's Goldy, my pet golden retriever." Alfred stares at me with this witty expression. "I named her when I was 3, okay?" I state, feeling slightly embarrassed.

"Where is she at now?"

"Buried underneath a tree in my mom's backyard back home. She died of old age last year." Pausing, I take another reminiscing glance at the picture before Alfred returns it to where it originally had been. "Alex had a dog too, a Border terrier, but she died a few months after mine did. If I remember correctly, her name was Naomi."

Alfred looks at me guiltily, his facial features drooping in sadness. "I'm sorry Alexis, I didn't mean-"

"No need to apologize," I interrupt him, smiling at him softly. Underneath my smile there's this hint of sadness, something that doesn't go unnoticed. "You didn't know." The American nods, though halfheartedly, and continues his journey around my room. But as he returns to his snooping, I suddenly remember something. "Alfred?" The blue eyed man stops moving, a sign to me that he's listening. "Thanks for doing what you did for me last night. You know, defending me against that French person."

He looks over at me, his eyes wide, before making his way back to my side. "No prob. The hero's supposed to protect the people he cares about," Alfred responds softly, contradicting the bright and broad grin he's sporting. At that perfect moment, we lean in to share a kiss, our lips our merely a breath away, but a loud shout causes us to jump away from one another.

"ALLLLLLEEEEEEXXXXIISSSS! ALLLLFFFFFREEEEEEDDD! COOOOMMMME DOOOOOOOWWWWWNNNN!" My sister yells from downstairs, her voice echoing throughout the condo. I roll my eyes, feeling slightly irritated at Alex for interrupting us, before grasping Alfred's hand. We slowly stroll, side by side, down the stairs.

Just as we walk into the living room, the American National anthem, along with God Save the Queen, starts playing. Both Alfred and Arthur snatch up their phones from various pockets. They answer the cellular devices, apologizing to us before excusing themselves out of the living room and into the kitchen. With one last glance in the direction of the kitchen, I plop myself down next to Alex on the couch with a heavy sigh. The past couple times that this has happened, their cell phones ringing, the two have always needed to leave for there "job".

Peering sideways at Alex, I notice her face has grown from happily delighted to a grim pissed off kind of expression. "Do you think they're gonna have to leave again?" I inquire her. She groans, sinking into the couch more, and nods grudgingly.

When the boys return to the room, Alex hops up off the couch and immediately goes to Arthur's side. He exhales softly, scrunching up his eyes as he does so. "I'm sorry love, but we have to take our leave." His voice sounds miserable, and Alex looks crestfallen at that. I move over to Alfred and discover him just as unhappy as the Brit.

"Do you really have to go Alfie?" I question him, my eyebrows creasing into a frown.

"Yeah," he replies glumly. "Though, I don't want to leave you."

"Then don't!" Alex bursts out forcefully. "You guys go off somewhere every time you get a call! Do you expect us to be okay with not knowing where you're going or what you're doing?! For all we know you could be plotting to kill us!" I look at my sister in utter shock; she rarely ever raises her voice like this. "If you're going to leave anyway, at least tell us what you're going off to do!" She shouts out in frustration, her chest rising and falling rapidly with each breath she takes. A few seconds of no one moving a muscle pass, until Arthur places both of his hands on her shoulders causing my sister to look up into his eyes. Small tears fill the corner of her eyes, telling him just how stressed out she is.

He just stares at her, not saying a single word, before he shakes his head dejectedly. "I can't. If the two of you knew, it would only be putting you both at the risk of danger. And the last thing I, or Alfred, would want is for either of you to get hurt because of us." Arthur brushes a strand of hair out of her face producing a smile from Alex, even if it's a tiny one.

"How much longer till you have to go off again?"

The Brit glances down at his watch prior to answering. "Approximately 10 minutes," Arthur answers, while he does I stare up at Alfred curiously.

"So what are you? A superhero or something? Is that why you can't tell us?" I giggle.

The American beams brightly and laughs. "Hell yeah I am!" Alfred shouts, grabbing me by my waist and hoisting me over his shoulder. I yelp out in alarm as I'm lifted off the ground. Arthur looks over at Alfred, his hands still positioned on Alex's shoulders.

"Put her down this instant, you git!" He hisses, scowling at him.

"Alfie, can you haha please not hold me hehe like this?" I ask, having a giggle fit in his embrace. Alfred chuckles and does as I request, setting me carefully down onto the couch. "But, being serious now, can't you two at least give us a teensy tiny hint about your job?" The couch creaks as Alfred takes a seat next to me.

"The only hint we can give you is that it's a secret," he says, winking charmingly at me. I roll my eyes and lean into his side.

All of a sudden I recall something strange from last night's surprise meeting with those four men. "Hey um, there's something that happened at the dinner date that's got me confused." This gains the others attention, especially Arthur's for some reason. "Why exactly did Francis call you two England and America in French?" I question, looking at Alfred curiously. At my inquiry, his eyes go a bit wide.

"Uh, well-" He begins to say nervously.

Arthur quickly intervenes. "Those are nicknames he gave us a long time ago. You know, since Alfred's American, and I'm English. Francis is actually also known as France, because he's French," Arthur explains, acting completely sure of himself. Standing next to him, Alex doesn't look satisfied with his answer, but appears to decide to let it slide.

Alfred lightly pokes my shoulder, asking me, "How'd ya know that's what he said anyway?"

"I took two years of French in high school," I reply. From the corner of my eye, I watch Arthur check his watch and realize it's time for them to leave.

"I'm sorry that we have to go so soon." He turns slightly to wrap his arms around Alex in a tight hug. While hugging, Alex pecks him on the cheek softly but lovingly. As they separate, the two grow bright red blushes covering a majority of their faces.

Alfred slowly gets off the couch and I stand up with him, stepping closer to hug him fiercely. "See you later, my most heroic hero." The American smiles brightly, squeezing me closer into his chest before straightening out.

"We'll see each other soon, hero's promise." With that, he finally gives me my long awaited kiss on the lips and then follows Arthur to the front of the condo.

The two men wave farewell and head out the door. "Till we meet again Artie!" My sister calls out, waving at them. When they're out of plain sight, she closes the door and we both return to the couch. "We'll find out what they do someday," Alex declares with determination. I glance over at her and nod solemnly.

"I sure hope so."

* * *

><p>AN: Finally got this edited! WOOHOOO! Thank you for your paitence! The next chapter of Love of a Country is out! XD I'd like to say that we do not own Hetalia nor the characters in the anime, we just own our own characters and the storyline. Anyway, on a different note, I'd like to ask all you readers a favor. Me and the Brony are looking for some suggestions for future chapters. So if you have any good ideas you'd like to share please leave a review and we might just have your idea in one of the chapters to come! Reviews make us happy people and would motivate us to work faster! Thank you my dear readers and see you next chapter! :D

-The Hetalian


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 6

Alex's P.O.V.

"Hmm, so the last thing on my to do list is to shop for tonight's dinner . . ." I stroll down the streets of London, humming a quiet tune to myself. All morning I've been out doing errands, letting Alexis do whatever she wants for the day. Though I had hoped to spend some time with her today, these errands couldn't be ignored.

Strangely enough, the streets are awfully quiet for a Friday, not as many cars zooming down the road. Despite the fact that there are still an awful lot of people walking and rushing up and down the sidewalks. A couple of times already I've been bumped into by a few thoughtless people, never hearing a single word of apology uttered! The rudeness of some!

I quickly glance down both ends of traffic on the street before sprinting across. Once on the other side, a group of teenagers come bumbling past, accidentally pushing me backwards onto the street. "Stare attento!" A hand shoots out from the crowd and grabs me by my wrist, dragging me back onto safer ground.

"T-thank you-" My words of gratitude are cut short by loud scolding, some words in a completely different language.

"Idiota! You need to be more careful! Mio dio, you almost gave me a heart attack!" Now wait a minute, the voice has an Italian accent . . . It couldn't be . . .

Immediately I look up and sure enough there stands the Italian man from the dinner date not too long ago. His amber colored eyes narrow into slits as he scowls down at me, though the scowl is without much spite. "Lovino? Is that you?" Lovino flicks some brown hair away from his eyes.

"Of course it's me! Have you met any other Italians in the area?" He huffs, crossing his arms firmly in front of his chest. "Unless you somehow met mio fratello."

I blink a couple of times, feeling a little bewildered. "N-no, I don't think I have met you're u-um . . ."

"My brother, mio fratello is Italian for my brother." Lovino rolls his eyes, glowering at something over my shoulder. "Simple Italian words," he mumbles grumpily to himself.

"Oh, well then no I actually haven't met your brother. Does he look anything like you?" The Italian nods slowly, still not looking me in the eyes. "Right, I should probably first introduce myself, I'm Alex Smith. Wow I knew your name this entire time but I don't think you knew mine haha."

I hold out my hand and Lovino shakes it. "Lovino Vargas."

"Now, care to elaborate more on your brother?" He shrugs and I detain a chuckle, knowing the sound of it could make him pissed. "You're really not very good at keeping a conversation going are you?"

Lovino glares at me, finally making eye contact. "Well what if I didn't want to keep this conversation going?" This time I do chuckle.

"Then you'd probably have said your goodbyes and left by now. But you didn't, which makes me think you do want to talk." I smile innocently at the Italian while his glare transforms into a scowl. "I'm right, aren't I?" Lovino glances away, other than that action he doesn't say anything. I'll take that as an unsaid yes. "So, you're brother?"

Unexpectedly the crowds of people grow even more congested and now I'm constantly being knocked into by individuals from varies directions. One particularly hard bump causes me to stumble against Lovino's chest. He curses under his breath, grabbing my wrist firmly and towing me to the side of the sidewalk where it's slightly less crowded. "Damn, noon rush hour is the same in every big city . . ."

I glance up at him in surprise. "Noon? It's already gotten that late?" Lovino nods. "Wow . . . time really flew by while I was out." A delicious smelling scent wafts in from a restaurant nearby and my stomach grumbles loudly. Instantaneously I wrap my arms around my gurgling stomach, my face bursting into color in embarrassment.

"Seems like someone's hungry," Lovino teases, smirking slightly. "I'm guessing you haven't had lunch yet, signora?" I shake my head, cheeks remaining a rather bright red. "Me neither. Come on, there's a reasonably good Italian place near here."

He takes my wrist once again; however, his grip is less rough than before. Lovino leads me down the sidewalk, weaving through the crowds of people. I speed up my pace to match his, so that I can be right next to him. "Um, I didn't get to finish before what I had wanted to tell you." Lovino peeks at you from the corner of his eye. "Thank you, for helping me back there. It wouldn't have been a pretty sight if I'd fallen into the street." My eyes shift to the cars driving past us. "Even if the roads aren't as full as they normally are . . ."

"You call this not full?" The Italian stares down at me, stunned.

"Well yeah, on any other day these streets would be completely filled with cars. Sort of like the streets in New York." I'm tugged to the side as a cyclist zooms past us, right where I had been standing.

Lovino glares at the back of the cyclists head and shouts out. "Guarda dove stai andando! Idiota!" I start laughing and he looks down at me as if I'm crazy. "Che cosa?"

"Remember," I say with a sing-song voice. "I can't understand Italian. Not even the simple Italian words." I giggle as Lovino scowls all over again.

"I said 'what?' stupido." He flicks my forehead with his free hand.

The flick causes me to flinch and I rub at the reddening area, mumbling, "Why is it that Italian curse words are so easy to understand but not the actual conversational ones?"

"Because they just are. It's your own fault for not being able to understand my established language uh I mean Italian." I glance at him in my peripheral vision, watching Lovino's expression change from annoyance to panic then lastly to neutral. "Anyway, we're here."

He stops in front of a casual looking restaurant. There aren't any fancy decorations or big signs, it appears completely ordinary. "Woah, this place looks . . . really nice." I smile and stare at the restaurant for another moment before Lovino starts pulling me inside.

"Yeah, yeah, sure it does. Now come on, standing here gawking isn't going to get us any food." He drags me through the entrance, letting me go so he can talk to the hostess up front. "Table for due, per favore."

The hostess smiles at his use of Italian language. "Right this way." She directs us to a booth close to the front of the restaurant. "Will this do?"

"Si, grazie." Lovino smiles charmingly at her, winking. The hostess blushes and, after excusing herself, rushes away. He watches her for another second before glancing back me, noticing me staring at him bemused. "What?"

Choosing one of the sides of the booth to sit in, I quickly slide in. "Nothing, just wondering if the stereotype for you Italians is correct." I look across from me as Lovino skims into his side.

"And that'd be?" he questions me, clasping his hands together above the table.

I shrug coolly. "They're people that enjoy flirting with those of the opposite sex too much for their own good." Lovino narrows his eyes at me, although I continue on before he can say anything. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that's completely true. Besides, I haven't met enough Italian's to validate it. You're my very first one." I don't know why, but Lovino blushes slightly at that.

"Well, don't judge people when you know nothing about them," he grumbles, staring intensely at the table. "Besides it's not like you haven't flirted before, right?"

Before I can answer, a waiter appears before us. "Buon giorno! I'll be your waiter for this afternoon; would you like to start off with drinks? We do have a fine selection of wines as well." The waiter hands us both a large menu and smaller one to Lovino.

The thought of drinking alcohol so early in the day didn't appeal to me very much, so I decide to just stick with something that had no alcohol in it. "I'll just have water with a lemon, thank you." The waiter nods and writes it down than looks towards Lovino.

He reads over the choices of wine, creasing up his face in disgust at times. "I guess I'll have a glass of Rosa Regale and a glass of water too." Lovino hands the smaller menu to the waiter, who takes it with a nod. He quickly excuses himself as soon as he gets his order written down. Once he's gone I decide to try and start up a new conversation.

"From the look on your face I'm guessing you don't like many of the wine options here." I lean in closer to the Italian, setting my forearms onto the table.

Lovino's eyes widen first before relaxing back to their normal size. "No, there are some all right choices but . . ." He appears to struggle with his words, so I finish his sentence for him.

"But there aren't any as good as the wine back home, right?" The man across from me nods. "Okay, that makes sense. The best Italian wines can only be found in their home country, I suppose." Lovino grins at that.

"Of course! No country has better wine than Italy!" he proudly states, smirking at me.

I giggle, smiling ever so slightly. "No arguments here, but that's most likely because I've never gone to any other countries, nor tried their wines." As the smirk on Lovino's face fades, I return to his question from before. "And to answer your question you asked before the waiter came, I have attempted to flirt with some guys but I no longer do that anymore now that I have Arthur." A dreamlike look crosses my face as I think about my cute Englishman.

Lovino just stares at me from across the table, taking in the look in my eyes. "So you believe you've found your il vero amore?" I look at him blankly. "Damn it, do you know any other language besides English!? I said 'true love'!" My cheeks flush a vivid red as he translates what he said.

"W-well I don't know if it's true l-l-love yet, but I can tell you that I do really like Arthur. He's kind, considerate, funny, and he can be just so cute at times." For a moment I get lost in thoughts of Arthur, but jolt myself out of them to answer what's most likely a rhetorical question. "And yes, I do know another language besides English." The Italian perks up, curiosity gleaming in his amber eyes.

"Oh, which other one do you know? French? Spanish?" I shake my head at his first two guess. "Swedish? Russian? Japanese?" Even more shaking of the head. "Oh for fucks sakes, just tell me already!"

Disbelief fills my eyes as he bypasses one of the obvious language choices that he should've guessed. "It's German! I thought that would've been one of your guesses since it's a well known language in the world!" Lovino's expression immediately changes into one of disgust.

"Why the potato bastard's language!? It's a piss ass annoying language, why the hell would you even want to learn the stupid thing!?" I recoil from his tone of voice, full of hatred and malice. "Even my stupid brother hangs out with a potato bastard!"

His rant on how Germans are complete potato bastard goes on till I can't stand to hear another word. I lean forward, my body stretching over the table, and smack the top of his head to silence him. "Will you just stop?! German's aren't as bad you think they are! Just because they eat and enjoy potatoes doesn't make them potato bastards. You Italian's like eating pasta yet German's aren't calling you pasta bastards!"

Lovino stares at me wide eyed, slight fear deep within his eyes. "Um . . ." But his chance to talk has already passed and now it's my turn.

"German isn't an annoying language; I personally believe it to be a brilliant one! Some of the words are so similar to the English translation that those who haven't even taken a German class could somewhat understand what a German is saying." I take a deep breath, gathering air into my lungs to continue my tirade. "Besides, how many German's have you met? Cause you'd need to have met quite a lot to be making such a big assumption!"

At the end of my little speech, my breathing comes out ragged. Lovino gapes for another couple of minutes before suddenly starting to chuckle. I glare at him, but am too out of breath to question him. Although he figures it out himself, without me having to say a word. "I've never met a woman who would speak so passionately about a language that wasn't her countries main language. It's amusing, and slightly refreshing."

I point at his forehead, his amber eyes going cross eyed from focusing on my finger. "You understand now? Don't you dare go insulting any language that either I or my sister speaks. Because I'll defend it with everything I've got, and it'll end up being one hell of an argument." The Italian nods, now an amused gleam to his eyes.

"I'll remember that from now on, mamma orso."

"What did you just call me?"

Lovino shrugs. "Who knows . . ." He looks devilishly at me. I frown and open my mouth to snap back, but at that moment our drinks arrive.

"All right, here are two glasses of water, one with a lemon, and a glass of Rosa Regale. Are you both ready to order?" The two of us peek at one another. In our arguing we forgot to figure out what to eat. I had even forgotten about my grumbling stomach, which is beginning to make sounds again.

"Uh . . ." Glancing down at the menu in front of me, I choose the first thing that sounds good to me. "I suppose I'll have the Spaghetti alla Puttanesca."

While I give my order, Lovino scans his menu and decides. "For me, a tomato salad spaghetti with extra tomatoes on top and on the side." The waiter scribbles down our orders and leaves once again. The Italian turns his attention back to me almost immediately. "I almost forgot, sorry for that night, the French bastard is a lot of the time a perverted stronzo." I didn't understand what he called Francis, though I figure it's probably some bad Italian curse word.

"You don't need to apologize, you didn't do anything wrong," I reply with a chuckle. "It's Francis that was in the wrong; if someone should be apologizing it's him. Though my sister was rather surprised at how Alfred got so angry at him for her." Lovino nods, his expression thoughtful.

"None of us have seen him get so mad before. Not even at work . . ." The mention of work suddenly got me thinking, an idea popping into my mind.

I reach forward and tap the Italian's hand with my pointer finger, getting his attention. "You're Arthur and Alfred's work colleague, correct?" Lovino thinks for a moment, his eyebrows knitting together.

"Si . . ."

"Then you know what their job is, right?" I press on, finally seeing a way to get the info I needed.

The Italian scowls. "Of course I do, we basically have the job, only with slightl differences." Excitement starts bubbling up inside me.

"Which means you could tell me a little bit about it?" I frown while saying my next words. "Whenever I ask Arthur he always changes the subject, like he's hiding something from me. Even when my sister and I asked them both the last time we saw them, which was pretty recent, they told us it was a secret." A sigh slips out from my lips, frown dropping off my face to show my true expression. "I'm just worried."

Lovino looks at me for a moment before down casting his eyes. " Mi dispiace, but if Arthur has said nothing about it then I won't either. It's not my place to talk about it." My excitement withers almost instantly.

"Please . . . anything will do." I gaze at him pleadingly, placing all my desperation into that one look. "Can't you tell me at least one little detail about their jobs? Something that will help relieve a little bit of my anxiety and worry." Furrowing his brows, Lovino stares deep into my eyes.

All of a sudden he releases a sigh and slouches. "Fine, I'll tell you something." My excitement renews in strength and I smile brightly at the Italian.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you! You don't know how much-" Lovino holds up his hand, signaling for me to stop.

"But it's only going to be a vague detail and I don't want you spouting your mouth off about it. If anyone asks, I didn't tell you anything, capito?" I nod my head up and down vigorously, my smile never toning down in brightness. "Okay, our work is related to the government. There, I said it."

I mull over his words, a thousand more questions now filling my mind. But a promise is a promise and I keep my mouth shut. Instead, to distract myself, I fiddle with my hands. Lovino glances at me, eyes filled with surprise.

"What? No questions? No asking for elaboration?" I smile at him, the action causing him to feel even more puzzled.

"You said you'd only tell me one thing and one thing only. Even if I had asked, you wouldn't have told me anymore, now would you?" The Italian shakes his head in disbelief.

"You really are one strange woman, you know that?"

I stick my tongue out at him. "I'll take that as a compliment. But seriously, thank you for telling me at least a little hint. It's way more than what Arthur or Alfred tells Alexis and I." My smile vanishes. "Though it slightly irks me that I have to hear this from someone I've practically just met instead of my own boyfriend."

Lovino smirks as I huff in annoyance. "He's just trying to protect you, mamma orso. You're precious to him and knowing what he does could kill you. If I were him I probably wouldn't have gotten involved with you in the first place." I glare at him and he shakes his head hastily. "I'm just saying, it's better to have never met and be alive instead of having met, fallen in love, and be dead."

His words make sense to me, which only causes me to feel sad. "But isn't it just sad to let love go without even trying at all? Maybe it'd end up alright and no one would have to die." Lovino rolls his eyes and points at me this time.

"You're not getting it. Think about it a little more and you may figure it out." I look at him in confusion. Our food decides to come at that moment. But throughout the meal I can't help but think about the Italian's words.

* * *

><p>Alexis Pov<p>

I stand outside one of the last CD stores in all of London. Because of iPods and Mp3 players there hasn't been much need or demand for them anymore. But since I have a pretty decent stereo system back at Alex's place, I still like to listen to CD's. I stroll in and find the store pretty much vacant except for a few people browsing varies CD sections. Wandering around, I try to find a couple of the bands I like. First, I head to the b section and grab my super all time favorite band, the Beatles Love CD. Nothing beats the good old classic rock, plus Alex likes them too!

"What do you mean you're all out of Metallica! The awesome me demands that you get it for me NOW." I hear a man with a heavy German accent yelling from the front of the store. His voice sounds really weird and oddly irritating to me. Deciding to ignore it, I make my way to the g section.

"I'm sorry sir, but someone came in yesterday and bought the last CD. We won't be getting anymore of them till next Wednesday." Before I search the row for my next CD, I peer out towards the cash register and spot an albino man arguing with the cashier.

Just from his tone I can tell he's pissed off. "Well, you're a loser and you should be honored the awesome me is in your sad pathetic excuse for a store!" That's when I recognize him.

He's that idiot that was with Francis at the dinner date and the one that took a bite out of my cake! Now he's being a big jerk face to another innocent victim. I storm over and raise my hand, smacking the back of his head hard. "Ow!"

"Hey! You don't treat people like that, you jerk!" He spins around to face me, scowling. "Imagine if your family were watching you! What would they think? Hmm?" I question the man, getting up close and personal. "I'm ninety percent sure they'd be ashamed of how you're acting right now!" His expression slowly transforms into shock, but I'm not finished yet. "You can't just go around thinking you're awesome because you have some fancy heritage!" His face goes from shock to terror in just a matter of seconds. "Apologize to the nice man, NOW!" I yell at him. He shrinks back like a puppy that just got caught doing something he shouldn't have been.

"Y-yes Fräulein," the albino stutters then faces the cashier. "I-I'm very sorry, sir! Please forgive me!" The cashier stares at him strangely but nods anyway.

I bob my head acceptingly, patting the albino on the back. "Now, let's go find a different CD that you might like." He nods, appearing quite ashamed, and follows behind me as I head to the section of CD's I wanted to search through before. "What other bands do you enjoy listening to?" I ask.

"Greenday is pretty awesome," he replies moodily, still staring at the ground. The sudden lack of eye contact vexes me.

"Pull yourself together. You've fixed your mistake and there's no need wallow in it." The albino glances up at me and then immediately returns to his normal composure.

His eyes hold a spark of confusion. "Who are you anyways?" The so called Prussian questions as I try to locate Greenday CD's.

"Alexis." The only response I get is a blank look. "Ya know, that girl your friend was a little too friendly with at that fancy restaurant a couple nights ago?"

Suddenly his face lights up in recognition. "The awesome me remembers you! You're Alfred's new girl!" He laughs like an obnoxious idiot and I look at him peculiarly. "That was hilarious!" I slap his head again. "Ow! Will you stop doing that?" He shouts angrily.

"Not until you stop acting like such a moron!" The albino scowls at me but doesn't make any more remarks. I glance up at him before continuing looking through the shelves. A few seconds later and I find what I'm searching for. Tugging out a Green Day's Warning album, I hand it to him. "What's your name anyways? I didn't catch it that night."

"Gilbert Beilschmidt and I am Prussian," he states proudly, causing me to roll my eyes.

"Ah . . . I'm Alexis Smith, if you wanted to know my last name. It's nice to meet you." I stretch my hand and Gilbert just stares at it. "Are you going to shake it or just stare at it all day?" He slowly moves his hand and grasps mine, shaking it weirdly. "You like Green day too? They're actually one of my all time favorite bands." I grab myself one of their CD's I don't have in my collection back home, then go down the section farther to find Guns and Roses and grab one of their albums too.

Gilbert follows behind me the entire time, holding his CD tightly as if someone might steal it from him. "Yeah, I do enjoy the awesomeness of that band."

I look at him questioningly from the corner of my eye. "You like the word awesome, don't you?"

"Kesesese, it's the only word that's good enough to describe me." Rolling my eyes, we head back to the register.

Once there, I hold my hand out. "Give me your CD," I demand. Gilbert hands it to me without thinking and I walk up and pay for our CD's combined. "There." Returning his CD to him, I smile playfully. "Now you have to buy me lunch to make us even," I say with a chuckle.

"But I don't want to buy you lunch!" He grumbles relatively loudly.

"Please?" I ask him with puppy dog eyes. The Prussian huffs out a sigh and starts trudging out of the shop. "Hey! Where are you going?" I call out, running up next to him.

Gilbert glances down at me before looking straight ahead again. "You said you wanted lunch, so we're getting lunch.

Gilbert and I find a small Coffee shop around the corner of the CD store. We sit at a small table, me across from him eating a sandwich and him looking around the place with a grimace. "What's wrong?" I ask, with my mouth full of sandwich. Alex would have scolded me if she were here and saw that.

"This place isn't as awesome as my home," he complains. "Why do you even like it here anyways? You could live anywhere in the world yet you pick here." I think before shrugging at his question.

"I can't exactly live anywhere I want but . . . I dunno. My sister is here and she's been basically the only consistent thing in my life. Everything else has been disoriented." I pause to swallow my food and take a sip of my drink. "Also Alfred's here now too." A goofy smile spreads across my face as I say this. My heart flutters as his name rolls of my tongue.

Gilbert rolls his eyes. "What do you even see in Alfred anyway, he's a complete dummkopf." I frown as Gilbert says that, knowing that's an insult, but I wave it off.

"Yeah, well, he's my dummkopf," I reply with a grin. He chuckles. "So tell me more about your 'awesome' self Gilbert."

"I'm awesome and Prussian. That's all you need to know," he says, crossing his arms with a smirk playing at his lips.

His answer and smirk make me shake my head. "You're going to have to tell me what a Prussian is exactly one day." I giggle. Suddenly I feel something vibrating in my pocket and pull out my phone, taking note of the sender of the text. I roll my eyes and shove my phone back where it had come from.

"Who was that?" Gilbert asks curiously.

"My father," I state with clear distaste and Gilbert stares at me skeptically. "What?" I demand, sounding more aggressive then I had wanted.

"The Awesome me wants to know what's wrong with you and your Papa," he insists, pushing me to explain more.

I let out a defeated sigh and figure I'd enlighten him this once. "I was five when my parents decided they no longer wanted to be together. So they got a divorce a couple months after that. My dad took Alex all the way to the other side of the world and I only got to see her in the summer." Gilbert nods and gestures for me to continue, which I do. "My parents were just so different from each other, I get that. What I don't get is why he had to come all the way over here to England, when we had lived in America." Gilbert stays silent for a little, probably letting my words sink in.

"Are you sure that's all?" He asks thoughtfully. I glance at the Prussian, a bit surprised; he didn't really seem like the caring kind of type.

"Well no, that's not all. My father leaving kinda made me feel like he didn't want me anymore. That's probably why I had trust issues all throughout high school." I look up at Gilbert, staring into his crimson eyes. "Why do you even care, we officially just met you moments ago."

He shrugs casually. "I dunno, you're interesting to me. Most of the girls around are stuck up in this world, but you're different than them. That's probably the reason why Alfred likes you." A devious glint appears in his eyes. "When'd you start liking Alfred?" I hum broodingly at the question.

"I met him at a comic book store; we were both going for the same comic at the same time and got in an argument over it. My sister actually had to drag me away so I wouldn't have attacked him. But when I looked into his sky blue eyes, I felt an electric jolt throughout my entire body." A giggle escapes me as a blush rises to my cheeks and Gilbert grins. "What about you Mr. I'm Awesomer Than Everyone? Do you have a girlfriend?"

His cheeks color red, but then he laughs like an obnoxious idiot, again. "Kesesese, nah! I don't have a girlfriend, but I'm perfectly fine being alone." I look at him oddly. "I mean, I'm not entirely alone. I have Gilbird!" The Prussian suddenly looks at me excitedly. "Would ya like to meet him?"

"Uh, sure?" I say uncertainly. He grabs my wrist and pulls me out of my chair, heading out the door. When we step outside, almost immediately a little yellow chick flies on top of his head. "Awww!" I squeal. Gilbert chuckles and holds out his hand for the small bird to jump onto. Then he brings his hand closer to me so I could pet the little ball of cuteness. "So, this is Gilbird?"

"Mmhm." I gently stroke the top of Gilbirds head, squealing inside of my mind at how soft he is.

A question pops into my head as I continue stroking Gilbird. "Why are the two of you here, as in London?" I ask him curiously. "Business?" He nods.

"Yeah, my younger brother works with Alfred and Arthur so I figured I'd tag along for the ride, see if there's anything worth my attention here."

"Cool!" I respond, my lips tugging up into a small smile. "What's your younger brother like?"

"West? Oh, well, he's a stick in the mud. Never really likes to have any fun or even relax at all. He and I are in reality fairly different." I nod absently, still patting Gilbird. Once I stop, the little bird flies back up onto Gilbert's shoulder, with the Prussian randomly asking, "Do you have any pets?"

"No, but I'd like a dog at some point," I say, I really don't feel like talking about Goldie all over again. Therefore I decide to change the subject. "What's your favorite Green Day song?"

"Umm, I find all of them awesome. So I don't think I could choose a favorite." He laughs and I smile. We begin walking down the street in silence for a few minutes. "I'm sorry, for what Francy Pants did to you. He can be really perverted at times, though I guess everyone in the BTT is a little." Gilbert rubs at the back of his head awkwardly. "Anyway, he probably won't ever do anything like that to you again. Mostly because Alfred has never been that angry before, it surprised all of us, especially Francis kesesese. You really do mean a lot to him."

I grin and glance down at the sidewalk. "Yeah, I'm pretty lucky to have him. Thank you, Gilbert, for listening to me today. I've never really talked about my father to anyone before, but I'm glad it was you who I did talk to. You're surprisingly a good listener," I say. He smiles down at me, though I can't see it since my eyes are trained on my feet.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, just take it as a compliment." I chuckle good heartedly, slapping his back for the second time that day. "Well, Mr. Beilschmidt, you and I are going to get along just fine."

* * *

><p>AN: Thank you so much for the reviews! They inspired me to get the next chapter edited quicker and posted earlier than usual! Anyway, we don't own Hetalia nor the characters in it! I apologize if there is any OOCness, we tried our hardest to make it seem like them but still keep it along with out story. There will be about 2 more fluff and fillerish type chapters before we get to some serious stuff. Reviews are greatly appreciated and will encourage me to edit the chapters faster. Plus we still need some new idea's for future chapters, so leave a review if you have one! But even if you don't, reviews are like cookies to us! Or some dessert that we really really love! See you next chapter!

-The Hetalian


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 7

Arthur's P.O.V.

After the most recent world meeting, all the countries had decided to go out drinking. This actually isn't an uncommon occurrence. Most meetings that end up being more stressful than usual always lead into a meeting at some random bar in the host's country. This particular meeting, though, was over the top nerve-racking.

Closer to the end of the meeting, Germany updates everyone on the progress of the finding out information on the new threat. Some new Intel had come into our possession, telling us all that it's now known that the threat consists of only humans. However, whether nations are involved or not is still unknown.

The bar everyone chose is a small one, not very well known, but by far my favorite. Alcohol here tastes great and it's cheap. Plus I personally known the owner of the place and they allow me free drinks from time to time. I sit down in a stool right in front of the bar and quickly order a drink, trying to ignore the noisy conversations coming from other nations. "Gin and tonic." The barkeep, also the owner, raises his eyebrow.

"Starting off strong right from the beginning?" He questions rhetorically, though he continues with preparing the drink. I massage my temples, the stress from the meetings finally catching up to me. "Work increasing?"

"You could say that, but it's nothing I can't handle." A crystal glass with clear liquid and a lime is sent my way. "Thanks mate." I take the glass and chug it all down in one gulp.

The barkeep looks at me sympathetically. "Well, don't drink too fast or you're not going to last long. I know you, Arthur." With a dismissive wave of my hand, the barkeep rolls his eyes and prepares a drink for a different customer. "Fine, but I don't want to be cleaning up your drunken mess tonight."

"I can handle my liquor just fine, thank you very much." That one drink gives me a slight buzz for a few seconds before fading back into nothing. In the empty bar stool to my left, America nervously scoots down next to me. It's kind of odd of him that even after a few seconds of sitting, he hasn't started running his mouth a mile a minute. "Alfred, is something the matter? You're being almost completely silent."

America visibly flinches and stutters quietly, "A-Arthur, I'm M-Matthew." I stare at him blankly.

"Who?" Just then another America plops down heavily in the stool to my right. "What the bloody hell?!" The barkeep glances over at the three of us, but otherwise continues with his job cleaning glasses and making drinks for other countries and customers.

The America sitting to my right laughs real loudly, slinging his arm around my shoulders. "Dude, how could you mistake Mattie for me?" I shrug his arm off distastefully and scowl. "Ya know, my brother? The country that's right above mine?" America leans in and whispers into my ear. "Canada?" Realization dawns on me which I quickly cover with a glare.

"Yes, yes, I know your brother." I turn to face the Canadian nation. "My apologies Matthew, you and Alfred really do look alike." Canada shakes his head and smiles weakly.

"It's alright Arthur; I'm used to it by now." Guilt gnaws at my insides at having mistaken the boy for someone else.

Yet America grins broadly, despite my current feelings. "Hahaha, I really don't know how you can mistake him for me. I mean, come on, he looks so much more girly and weak!" The Canadian sighs depressed like while I glare at the oblivious American.

"You bloody git! Can you be anymore insensitive?!" I down the contents in the glass in front of me before patting Canada's back strongly. "Don't listen to that tosser, lad." Gesturing for the barkeep, I suggest to Canadian, "Why don't I buy you a drink?" Without waiting for an answer, I order two new drinks. "A shot of whiskey for me and a half pint of cider for this man." I pat Canada on the back once more so that the barkeep knows who I'm talking about.

The barkeep gives me the eye, but complies with my demands. America laughs nervously, eyeing the two empty glasses in front of me. "Artie, you're not planning on getting drunk, are you?" He asks cautiously.

I scowl at the American. "Why must people continue worrying about me getting drunk?" The barkeep sets our drinks down and I nod a thanks. Canada tentatively sips at his drink while I reach for my own glass. Though, before I could grasp the little glass, America steals the liquor and holds it out of my reach. "Hey! Give that back, you bloody arse!"

"Iggy, everyone in this room knows how you get when you're drunk. You do some crazy shit." He looks at me meaningful. "Let's not have that happen tonight." I snatch my drink back from him, accidentally letting a few drops spill out in the process.

"Would you stop worrying!? I can hold down my liquor better than you lot any day!" America stares at me, incredulous, before shrugging and turning his attention to the door that just opened.

Just as the rim of the glass touches my bottom lip, I feel America persistently poking at my arm. "Iggy. Iggy. Iggy! Look!" The only reason holding me back from smacking the man is that his voice has this urgency to it.

"What?!" I hiss out, twisting around to see the front of the store where whatever America's attention is on is at. Though when my eyes set on the three people standing there near the door I gasp out, "Alex?"

Said girl looks up from her conversation with her sister and spots me. At first she just stares at me, wide eyed, but when realization sets in Alex smiles brightly. She tugs at the hem of Alexis's shirt, gaining her attention, and then points in the direction of America and me. The last member of their group, loitering around the two sisters, I faintly remember having met before but I just can't remember where.

America hops off his stool and rushes over to the girls. "Hey girls, whatcha you doin' here?" He pecks Alexis's cheek and promptly wraps an arm around her waist, grinning like an idiot. "Artie told me this wasn't a too popular bar so . . ." I step off my own stool and make my way over to them, weaving past various tables and chairs.

"We didn't think we'd get the pleasure of meeting you tonight." Hearing what the American had begun to say, I swiftly finish his sentence for him. Alex looks at me, her eyes sparkling happily, and I can't help but step closer and caress her cheek tenderly. "What exactly are you doing here?" I ask her, almost whispering the question.

Alex leans into my touch, her eyelids sliding shut to conceal the blue iris that I love so much. My sight drifts downwards, those pink lips of her's practically begging me to kiss them, but I control myself since we're in front of others. Instead I opt to brushing my lips against her forehead. This action gets Alex to open her eyes and stare up at me.

"Ahem, sorry to interrupt this little moment, but my body requires the vodka promised upon coming here." We break off eye contact and I glance over Alex's shoulder at their black haired friend. She slightly smiles, waving her hand. "Hello again." Alexis gestures to her, speaking to both America and I but looking mostly at America.

"You two remember our friend Alicia, right?" At the mention of the girl's name, I realize just where I had met her.

America chuckles, giving the girl in his arms a thumbs up. "Of course I do! The hero never forgets a friend of their loved one." His statement causes Alexis to giggle and thread her hand in his free one.

"Did I hear someone say they needed vodka, da?" At the sound of the gruff voice, our little group looks over to the side. Russia stands slightly away from the five of us, his hands behind his back and smiling almost innocently.

I'm just about to tell him to piss off when Alicia steps forward. "That was me. Why do you ask?" The Russian nation looks over her, probably scrutinizing the poor girl. When he finishes examining her, he takes his hand out from behind his back and there in his palm is a brown bottle of vodka.

"I've got better vodka here than in this bar, comrade. Maybe we can drink this together." Alicia smirks and walks over to the Russian, taking the bottle from his hand. A childlike smile spreads across Russia's face and for once it doesn't have a hint of evil in it.

After Alicia does a check on the bottle, she hands it back to Russia. "That's a pretty good kind of vodka, where did you find it?" With her comment, Russia's smile grows and he begins leading her to an empty table.

"This is from Russia, where the best vodka is made." He holds his hand out to her. "Ivan Braginski."

Alicia takes the hand and shakes it. "Alicia Warren." They continue towards a vacant table, the last thing I hear from her being, "While we drink this vodka you can help me with my plans for world domination, Mr. Braginski."

"Please, comrade, call me Ivan da?" I slap my hand over my face, dragging it downwards, that's going to be one interesting relationship. From behind me I hear another gruff, but more stern, voice.

"Vat is happening here?" The voice sounds a little irritated, as it demands answers. We turn around and come face to face with Germany, Italy by his side waving happily.

Italy see's the girls and his waving increases in speed. "Hi ladies!" He see's Alexis at the same time Alex notices him.

"I know you!" They literally say at the exact same moment. I glance down at Alex in confusion, sort of like the face Italy now has as he gapes at Alex, while Alexis stares at Italy in puzzlement.

I stroke Alex's hair gently, questioning her, "Love, what do you mean you know Feliciano?" She looks up at me with big doe like eyes, before tilting her head and smiling.

"Well he looks like Lovino so I automatically thought that he'd be Lovino's younger brother." Italy brightens up almost immediately.

"You know mio fratello?" Alex nods, resting against me. "That's great news ve!"

Alexis looks between the two of them before speaking up. "Um it's good that you got that all cleared up, but how on earth do you know who I am?" She gestures to Italy, though America beats the Italian at answering her question.

"Well, I maybe, kind of . . . showed them a picture of you at work once." Alexis stares at him in surprise. When she sees him looking at the ground with a guilty expression, she chuckles. Her laughing gets America's attention to shift from the floorboards to her. "You're not mad?"

She shakes her head, bringing her hand up to pat the American's cheek. "Of course not! Showing your coworkers a picture of me is fine. I actually think it's perfectly normal." America practically stretches his lips a far as humanly possible in the grin he gives Alexis.

Germany, who so far has yet to say a word, watches us closely for a moment before speaking, "Some introductions may be helpful right now. There are some of us who don't know others here." America's smile dims barely. He tugs Alexis somewhat closer to the German by his arm still around her waist.

"This here's Alexis Smith, my super cute girlfriend, the one I was talking about in that one meeting." Under Germany's sharp eyes, Alexis squirms nervously as she holds out a hand for him to shake. Which he does after a few seconds of just looking.

"You must be Gilbert's younger brother right? Since you have that accent and also work alongside Alfred too," she states coyly.

Germany's once neutral expression changes into one of surprise. "J-ja, ich bin Ludwig Beilschmidt." Italy jumps up and down next to him.

"And I'm Feliciano Vargas ve~!" He exclaims cheerfully.

I roll my eyes at his excitement and bring Alex next to Alexis. "This lass is Alex Smith, Alexis's older sister and my g-girlfriend." I can't stop the stutter in my voice when I say girlfriend, a blush clearly dusting my cheeks.

Alex, oblivious to my blush, reaches forward and shakes hands with both nations. "It's a pleasure to meet you both." She intertwines our hands carefully as soon as she steps away from the German and Italian, looking up at me with this adorable smile. But then all hell breaks loose when other nations notice the two humans, actually three but they don't pay mind to Alicia's as she's in Russia's presence.

* * *

><p>Alfred's P.O.V.<p>

At first Japan comes up from behind Germany and Italy. But China and Spain, much to England's displeasure, are closely following him. "My name is Kiku Honda." I hear Japan introduce himself, bowing ever so politely before reaching out a hand towards Alexis.

Alexis smiles pleasantly at the Japanese man, reaching her hand out and shaking Japan's. "Nice to meet you! I'm Alexis. I'm just gonna take a wild guess but you must be one of Alfred's co workers right?" Japan nods. "Cool!"

"Kiku and I actually play video games together sometimes too," I excitedly tell her. She looks up at me and grins warmly. My heart skips a beat at the sight of it.

China pushes past Japan and walks up to Alex, smiling slightly suspiciously. "Ni Hao, I am Yao." He and Alex shake hands.

"Alex." Alexis's sister replies, a kind expression on her face. Spain waves at her happily, but before he can talk to her, Arthur takes her hand and pulls her away from the other nations.

"Poppet do you want anything to drink?" he asks her, gesturing to the bar. "The drinks here aren't that bad, unless you don't drink alcohol."

She rolls her eyes playfully, though allows him to direct her away from the others. "Actually there's a drink I've been meaning to try out." For a second it appears she's debating something inside her mind, but that look quickly disappears. "Could I have an Appletini, please?"

Arthur chuckles. "Of course you may." He then leads Alex away from the rest of us and towards the bar. I glance down at Alexis at the same time as she looks up.

We stare at each other, as if in a trance. But I quickly shake the feeling off to ask a similar question to Arthur's, "Do you want anything?" She smiles, through slightly dazedly.

"Sure! Though, instead of alcohol, could I have Mountain Dew?" Alexis requests sweetly.

"Mmhm," I murmur, taking her hand. Walking to the counter, I follow the path my brother had just taken. Arthur sits down on the stool he had been previously sitting on before with Alex doing the same only with the stool next to him. I walk over to his other side, dropping onto the stool there while Alexis sits on the one on my free side. "Could I have a mountain dew and a bud light?" I ask the bartender.

He nods then looks over at Arthur questioningly. "An Appletini for her and nothing for me," he answers the unspoken question with a smile, the bartender looking at him in pure shock before stumbling to fill our orders.

"H-hey miss? Y-you k-kinda took my spot." I hear a small whispery sounding voice from the other side of Arthur. Looking around him, I spot my brother Canada tapping insistently on Alex's shoulder, trying to get her attention.

I sigh and turn my head towards Alexis. Her legs sway back and forth in a childish manner, one that brings a soft smile to my face. Her hair is set in brown curly spirals and she has the sweetest smile on her face as she inspects the bar. After a few seconds pass she finally takes notice of me staring at her. She looks directly at me and her smile grows even bigger, eyes alight. I lean forward to press my lips on her forehead, this causing her to giggle cutely.

"Hey Mattie! Come here for a sec!" I yell over to Canada. He looks at me, dejection clear in his eyes, and sighs as he walks past Alex towards me. "Mattie, I'd like you to meet my girlfriend Alexis, and over there is her sister Alex," I state proudly with a broad smile.

"Huh?" I hear Alex say. "Oh!" She ambles over and holds her hand out to Matthew. "I'm sorry I didn't see you when you were tapping on my shoulder, I'm Alex." He shakes her hand with a shy smile, accepting her apologies.

"Hi! I'm Alexis! It's really cool to meet you!" Alexis introduces herself enthusiastically doing the same as Alex had done and holding out her hand. Mattie shakes hers as well.

"I'm Matthew Williams," he says, smiling timidly.

Just then the bartender returns with our drinks. "Here you all are," he states. Alex smiles once more at Matthew before sitting back down next to Arthur. I spin around and pay the bartender the money for the two drinks while Arthur pays for Alex's drink.

"There's a spot over here, if you want to sit down." Alexis pats the stool next to her. The Canadian nods gratefully, still grinning as he sits next to her. She turns back toward the counter and sips at her Mountain Dew. "So, what have you been doing since I last saw you 4 days ago?" She asks me curiously.

"Work and a bunch of other boring crap," I answer with a roll of my eyes and a sly grin. She giggles. "What about you?" I take a swig of my beer.

Alexis taps her chin, thinking back to past few days. "Well, ya know, the usual stuff. Oh and Alex and I met a few of your co-workers, other than the ones we met tonight." I choke on my drink and Arthur looks over at her in surprise.

"What?" He demands sternly, not at all amused with my near choking.

"Yeah, I met Lovino while doing some shopping and she ran into Gilbert at a CD store," Alex affirms normally, as if this wasn't a big deal.

Which it is.

"Alfred, are you okay?" Alexis questions me with worried eyes as I'm still hacking up my drink. She starts hitting my back in an attempt to help me out.

When I'm finally able to talk coherently again, I look at her grimly. "Stay _away _from Gilbert." I command harshly, the force of my sudden anger sounding in the tone of my voice. Her eyes go from worried to terror in a fraction of a second. The sight of her fear makes me almost feel guilty for having raised my voice, but I don't apologize. I'm way too angry to do that.

"Why?!" I heed Alex's voice. "She's allowed to be with whomever she wants." I jerk my head around to glare at Alex, who has stood up and stormed over. "Right, Arthur?" I glance at my brother, who's looking around the room awkwardly before standing up and making his way to her side.

He opens and closes his mouth a couple of times without saying anything, then abruptly answering her, "Well Alex, I kind of agree with him, which is actually a rare occurrence. I don't really think it's a good idea for you to be around Lovino." Alex stares at him in disbelief.

"I ask again, why? Arthur, we're human beings not property or objects to claim. I'm allowed to talk to anyone my heart desires!" She exclaims and Arthur's brows furrow.

"You shouldn't be around him! Both of them are irresponsible and you could easily get hurt!" He retorts.

Alex practically growls, "I am a grown woman Arthur, I'm pretty sure I can take care of myself just fine," she glares at him as she responds.

"I don't trust either one of them!" Arthur tries to get Alex to understand, but from the looks of things it isn't working.

"Well apparently you can't trust the two of us either, since you won't even tell us what you're freaking job is!"

"Don't yell at my brother like that!" I roar at Alex. She glares daggers of pure anger and fury at me. I'm about to add something but then I hear a sniffle from behind me. I twist around and find Alexis with tears in her eyes. My fury dissipates immediately.

"Alexis, I-I."

"You have done _enough_!" Alex snarls. She hurries up to her sister and holds her in her arms, stroking her hair soothingly. "Come on Alexis, we're going home." Alex then turns to face the other end of the bar. "Alicia, are you coming?" She yells across the room.

Her friend turns her head from a table that she's sharing with Russia. She nods once for affirmative, and hurries over to the two sisters while waving goodbye to the Russian. Alex drops her arms that had been encircling Alexis and instead takes her hand, leading her to the exit. I try to follow them but Arthur grabs my shoulder, keeping me standing there, forced to watch my girl leave. Twisting around in his grip, I look at him and notice the grim expression over his face.

The girls exit through the door and I shrug off Arthur's hand, trotting towards the door. I grab the handle but before I can turn it Arthur says, "Alfred don't. Alex was right, we've done enough tonight. Let them go as they please."

I slowly turn around and sit in the nearest chair, dropping my head into my hands. "What were you bastards arguing about with your girlfriends?" An annoyed, Italian accented, voice asks.

Peeking from between my fingers, I see Lovino in front of us with his arms crossed and wearing an irritated expression. I glance to the side and realize my brother had just noticed him. His face darkens and he charges towards Romano, grabbing the collar of his shirt, spinning him around, and slamming the Italian roughly against the closest wall. His actions surprise both Romano and I.

"Stay away from my girlfriend, you sodding arsehole," he snarls. Romano's expression goes from shock to pissed off in seconds.

"È culo, lasciami andare! Solo perché lei è la tua ragazza non vuol dire che non posso essere amico di lei!" He yells, struggling against the Brit's grip.

"Dude, you're not going to get anywhere if you speak to us in Italian," I state indifferently.

Romano rolls his eyes, glaring at both of us. "I said let me the fuck go and that I can be friends with her if I want to!" He shouts even louder. "And it's Alex's decision whether to talk to me or not. Not yours, bastardos!" Arthur drops him and scowls down at his shoes.

"Let's go home Alfred." I get off the chair, barely acknowledging Lovino cursing under his breath at us. I reach the door and open it, when I do I see Prussia leaning against the wall outside next to the door. He smiles, oblivious to anything that has just happened. I stare at him for a split second before smashing my fist into his head.

"Ow! Vat the hell vas that for Alfred!?" I continue walking forward, leaving the Prussian there in pain, with Arthur following close behind me. Now we just need to figure out how to apologize to the girls.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm sorry for the late update! I got sick and haven't been able to focus on editing. And, on another sad note, my laptop has died and I've been having to use a back up computer. Which has suckish internet. Anyway, here's the next chapter! We don't own Hetalia in an way, sadly haha. Please review! They make me edit faster and get these chapters posted sooner, and they're like an early christmas present to us! This chapter's a tad bit serious, I hope you enjoy!

- The Hetalian


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 8

Alexis P.O.V.

"No one has ever yelled at me like that before, Alex!" I sob into my sister's chest, clutching at her shirt tightly. Currently situated in my room, we returned from the bar moments ago with Alex holding me close, stroking my hair back. "I mean, Dad and Mom did it maybe once or twice but not anything like that!"

"Shh, it's all right. Why don't you take a drink of water," she hands me a glass full of water that had been resting on the bedside table, "and then go change into your pajamas, so you can get some sleep." I nod, pulling away from Alex's embrace to take the glass from her hands and drink a couple of small, careful sips from it.

"Thanks," I gasp out weakly, wiping stray tears from my eyes. "I think I'm okay now," my voice comes out unconvincingly, so I try and smile at her only for it to take on a watery tone. Alex nods halfheartedly before slowly making her a way out of my room.

At the door, she stops and turns back around to face me. "Are you sure you're going to be okay?" she asks anxiously.

"Yeah I'll be fine," I reassure her, making an effort to make my smile more strongly. She looks at me suspiciously for a few seconds before letting out a long sigh and I pipe out a, "Good night, Alex."

"Night Alexis . . ." she replies, casting one more concerned look towards me before walking out the door and closing it behind her softly.

When I hear her footsteps fade away into silence, I set the water down onto the bedside table. Shuffling over to my dresser, I rifle through it until I locate my favorite sweatpants and sweatshirt. With little trouble I pull them on, smiling fondly at the warm feeling they give me. Once both clothing articles are on, I head over to my bedside table where, inside the first drawer, my glorious chocolate stash is located. Grabbing a single chocolate bar, I climb into bed and burrow under the covers. Before getting too comfortable I reach towards the small lamp on the table and turn it off, allowing my eyes to drift shut as I begin to nibble on the chocolatey goodness.

_Knock Knock Knock._

My eyes pop open as I hear a noise that sounds much like glass being tapped by something hard. But, after thinking a little, I decide to ignore it. It's most likely Alex doing something weird downstairs. With that knowlegde, I relax once again and continue to indulge in the chocolate.

_Knock Knock Knock_

There it is again. Athough, now that I think about it, it sounds too close to be coming from downstairs. I sigh, setting my unfinished chocolate down and getting up out of bed, turning on the light in the process. Sluggishly, I walk over to my windows to look outside. I roll the shades up and nearly shriek at what I uncover. "Gah!" I yelp as the sight of Alfred hanging from my window sill is reveled. He waves at me, a bright smile plastered on his face despite his current predicament. My body's frozen in utter shock at the fact that he's here; right outside my window. Which, in other words, means he's two stories up in the air. I regain some sense to open the window wide enough so he can slip through.

"Hey Alexis!" he shouts, his voice being louder than I'd like.

"Shhh! Do you want my sister to know you're here?" I hiss, glaring at him. "What are you even doing here?"

"Oh yeah, I got you these," he says distractedly, reaching behind over his shoulder into a backpack I just realize he has and pulls out some droopy looking yellow tulips along with a box of chocolates. Cautiously taking them, I immediately turn around and walk back to my bed, sittting on the soft blankets. "And I wanted to say I'm sorry for being such a jerk earlier."

I glance up to see his big blue eyes gazing down at me. My heart begins to pick up speed and I take a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm myself. Steadying my hands, I gently open the box of chocolates and find one of them missing.

"Of course you already ate some," I chuckle, looking back up at him. Setting the flowers and chocolates aside, I get up off my bed. With languid steps, I walk closer to Alfred and hug him, making him jump in surprise. "You're forgiven." He regains his composure from the shock and wraps his arms around me, nuzzling his nose in my hair. "But I'm telling you this now, if you ever do something like that I again I'm going to smack you multiple times with a spoon."

"W-what? A spoon?" Alfred stutters, a bit taken aback by my choice of weapon.

"Mmhm, a spoon," I answer surely. With everything well again I rest my head against the American's chest, listening to the beating of his heart. Hearing the rhythmic sound relaxes my entire body, effectively calming me. Suddenly I remember he had been hanging outside of my window moments ago. I tilt my head back to look at him. "How did you even reach my window? You're not trying to be like that creepy stalker, Edward, from twilight?" I ask him warily.

Alfred laughs, thankfully not loud enough for it to be heard outside my room. "Nah, I saw the new Spiderman movie and thought it'd be an awesome heroic thing to try out!" He states happily with a goofballish kind of grin and I can't help giggling. "Oh, and if you're wondering how I got up here, I just climbed up the pipe next to your window." Satisfied with his answer, I return to laying my head on his chest.

Then I get an idea.

"Hey, I've got some more chocolates in a drawer; do you want to share a couple of them with me?" A childish grin appears on the American's face. "Of course we can't eat all of it, we'd get sick if we did, but we can definitely eat some!" Alfred nods his head excitedly. I untangle myself from his embrace and walk back over to my bedside table.

For a second time that night, I open the top drawer and find my chocolate stash, grabbing a massive bag of mini Reese's peanut butter cups and M&Ms out from it. Settling down on my bed, I rest my back against the headboard. Upon returning my attention to Alfred, who's still standing by the window awkwardly, I roll my eyes and pat the open spot next to me. He smiles brightly and crawls onto the bed next to me. I hand him the bag of M&Ms and he rips them open as I tear open the peanut butter cups. We sit in silence for few minutes, content with munching on chocolates, until Alfred mumbles out a random question.

"Why exactly are you living with your sister here in London when you're originally from America," he questions me, his eyes wide and full of innocent curiosity.

"Hmm, well, I've been coming here to stay during the summer for a while and England actually has some pretty decent colleges. So I figured, why not," I explain, peering at him from the corner of my eyes and smiling fondly. "What about you? You're about as American as it gets; why are you here?"

Alfred grins happily. "It's mostly my job keeping me here. But when that's all done and over with I can return to my country if I want to, though I'm not too sure if I'm gonna go right away," he replies, shoving a handful of the small colorful candy in his mouth. His response answers some of my questions, but at the same time makes me more curious.

"Why?"

"Cause you're here," he says around a mouth full of M&Ms. I stare at him in surprise.

"You'd stay thousands of miles away from your home, your family and friends, just to be closer to me?"

He swallows the chocolates, his grin broadening. "Course I would! You're my precious girlfriend!" As he says that my heart swells up with happiness. Smiling, I lay my head on his shoulder while popping a chocolate in my mouth. Alfred sighs happily, clearly content with this position "Do you think Alex will ever forgive Arthur and me?"

I think about my answer for a second. "My sister really does like Arthur but, truthfully, I dunno. I hope so," I answer before asking him a question cautiously, "So . . . are you still mad that I hung out with Gilbert?"

Alfred shakes his head. "Nope, Alex was right, you're a human being and you have the freedom to choose who you want to spend your time with. I'm not thrilled it's Gilbert, but then again, it could have been someone worse," he muses, turning his head so he can look at me easily. His sky blue eyes lock onto mine and he smiles softly, a blush making its way on his face. "I'm really happy you chose to forgive me, I wouldn't have known what to do with myself if you hadn't."

"Well, I'm glad I did choose to forgive you. I think my summer would have been totally boring and depressing if I hadn't," I counter, snuggling a bit closer to the tall American. After a minute or two, Alfred allows his head to rest atop of mine.

All of a sudden he gasps and sits up straight. "Fuck, I almost forgot." Alfred exclaims, sliding away from me to scuttle to his backpack that's resting against the wall near the window. He digs through it until he locates what he's searching for, pulling out a medium sized black box. The American returns to the bed and scoots back next to me, except this time his entire body faces me. Holding the box out, Alfred opens it to reveal a small silver locket. I gasp and cover my mouth with both hands. "Do you like it?" he nervously asks.

I stare up at him, my face breaking out into a smile. "I love it," I breathe out. Alfred grins as he takes the jewelry out of its box. The locket's shaped like a heart and decorated with a single, well sized, pearl in the center of it. He hands it carefully over to me.

"Open it," he requests, being oddly docile. I do as he asks and open the locket. Inside, there's a picture of him and me, taken while we were still at the London Wonderground. A picture Alfred had taken with his phone right after our first kiss.

"Wow Alfred. This . . . is just amazing. Thank you so much!" I declare happily. Gazing up at him, I notice his face has gone red. With a warm smile I lean forward and kiss him, parting just moments after we touch. He looks at me in surprise, his face growing an even darker shade of red. "Really, thank you Alfred." The American's face quickly softens and he holds me close to him. A barely audible footsteps come from below my room and I quickly pull away from the hold. "You should probably get going. It's getting late and my sister might come in to check on me any minute."

Alfred nods as he sighs dejectedly, definitely not happy about having to leave. "You'll text me in the morning right? As soon as you wake up?" he presses, slowly getting up and heading towards the window.

"Of course! The second I open my eyes I'll grab my phone and contact you," I promise, placing the locket back in its box and setting it on the bedside table alongside my have eaten chocolate bar and the flowers and chocloate I recevied from Alfred. Snatching up the M&Ms, I hand them to him. "Take these, they're really addicting and I need to stop eating them," I chuckle, causing the American to smile.

"You sure about giving them to me?" With a quick nod, I try not to think of the delicious chocolates now leaving my ownership. Alfred grasps the candy, packing them into his backpack before shouldering the bag on. "I'll see you soon then?"

"Yep!" Content with my answer, he opens the window and begins making his way out. Just as he's almost fully out, I realize something I forgot to do. "Wait!" Alfred twists around and looks at me, now hanging from the window sill. Seizing him by the chin, I give the man another quick kiss, making it short and sweet. "See ya later, Mr. Jones." He grins blindingly, releasing his hold of the ledge and dropping down smoothly onto the ground. He lands securely on his feet, almost like a cat. The American wave's goodbye once more and then runs off into the night.

I rest my elbow on the window sill my boyfriend's hand were once holding onto, gazing off into the dark. I'm seriously one lucky duck.

* * *

><p>Alex's P.O.V.<p>

After having made sure that Alexis is all right, though I don't believe she completely is, I make my way downstairs. A majority of the lights have already been turned off, but some are left on so I'm not stumbling my way around. I silently stride into the kitchen, filling the old fashioned kettle up with water and placing it onto the stove. It's always been that before going to bed I'd have a cup of earl grey. It really helps in soothing my mind.

Exactly what I need at the moment.

"Really, why the hell do men always have to act so possessive? We aren't helpless animals nor do we not know how to fend for ourselves!" I grab a mug out of a cupboard roughly, along with the box of earl grey tea bags. Staring at the box, I can't help but slump my shoulders lifelessly. ". . . That's what we've been doing so far . . . fending for ourselves."

Knowing that the water will need a couple of minutes to fully heat up, I settle on checking all the locks on the windows. It's always better to be safe than sorry. Since I'm already in the room, I first check the kitchen windows, tugging at them to ensure maximum security. After a few tugs I deem them as secure as they can be. Next I head into the living room and check the windows there. As I do, I start mumbling to myself.

"Those two are complete idiots . . . I swear, I don't know what I'll do if I see them anytime soon." A growl escapes from my lips. "Especially Alfred." I glare at nothing in particular. "How dare he make my little sister cry like that!"

I yank at a window viciously, causing me to lose my grip and fall backwards. Landing right on my tail bone, I wince and grimace. This day really can't get any worse. All the hurt and frustration built up inside of me comes out in the form of hot tears trailing down my cheeks like rivers.

Touching the wetness, my mask of anger finally cracks and my sadness comes uncovered. I curl up, bringing my knees close in while wrapping my arms around them. Tears continue to cascade down, staining my pants with tear drops. "Stupid Arthur, this pain is entirely your fault . . ." Though deep down I know that isn't true.

A sharp whistling sounds interrupts my sulking, causing me to look up from behind my knees. For a second I can't figure out what's making that noise. Sadness fogs up my brain and makes it a little hard to think properly. Then it suddenly hits me.

"The hot water!" I shoot up, sad thoughts momentarily pushed to the back of my mind, and rub frantically at my eyes to wipe away all the tears. The shrieking of the kettle becomes higher pitched as I near the kitchen. Hurrying in, I quickly pull the kettle to side and turn the stove off. As soon as the kettle isn't being heated up anymore, the shrieking quiets down instantly. I slowly release the breath I didn't know I had been holding in, using the back of my hand to brush over my eyes once more.

With unsteady hands, I shakily pour the hot water into the mug I had previously retrieved, now with a tea bag in it. The steam rising from the steeping drink warms my chin for a split second before I take a step away. My gaze drifts to the now silent kettle, thoughts about how this fight would affect my relationship with Arthur crowd my mind. All of a sudden, the silence in the condo is broken by knocks coming from the front door.

"Who in their right mind would come knocking at such a late hour?" I glance in the direction of the front door, waiting for another round of knocks. It's late and I'm awfully tired, so there's a possibility I might have just imagined it all. However, a few seconds later and there it is again, a pattern of soft knocks, barely loud enough for me to hear from the kitchen. "Ugh I'm really not in the mood for this . . ."

I shuffle over to the door, resting my palms against the cool material of the door. Taking a second, I do a double check for any tear tracks or any evidence at all of me having cried. Finding it all clear, I breathe deep and turn the door handle, opening the door.

But as soon as I lay my eyes on the person crazy enough to knock at my door this late at night, I hasten to slam the door shut. Just as the door is nearly all the way closed, the man hastily gets his foot right in between the door and doorframe. "Shit! Alex, wait!" Knowing that I wouldn't be able to close the door with his foot in the way, I glare at him as venomously as I can.

"What the hell do you think you're doing here, Arthur?" I spit out, though mindful of the volume of my voice. Don't want to wake Alexis if she's asleep. "If you've come here to talk then you can forget about it. I'm not listening to a single thing you have to say." Arthur looks at me in distress.

He tries to drive the door wider, only for me to put all my strength in keeping it as far closed as possible. "Alex, please! Give me a chance to explain myself!" The door creaks and groans as forces from both sides work against one another. "Please, listen to what I have to say, love . . ." I can tell he's putting more effort into getting the door open by the strain of his voice, and I also know that it's only a matter of time till he's successful. So, as a last act of stuborness, I spin around and release my grip on the door, storming back towards the kitchen.

"I won't listen to anything that comes out of your mouth." From behind me, I can hear Arthur curse as he stumbles forward, not having expected me to give up so suddenly. "Anyway, I thought you had said everything you wanted earlier at the bar." Upon marching into the kitchen, I make a beeline for my tea.

Taking an experimental sip, my face twists in displeasure at finding out its gotten cold. In my peripheral vision I watch Arthur walk awkwardly into the kitchen as well. "Dearest, you need to understand-"

"I think I understand plenty. You don't trust us, you don't trust me. You've made that loud and clear." I frown as I dump the now cold mug of tea in the sink. "Though it's not only that you can't trust me with any knowledge about your job, you won't even allow me to meet other people from your work."

Arthur paces over to me, holding his hands tentatively out in front of him. "That's not it-" he attempts to say, only for me to cut him off.

"Of course that's it!" I throw my arms in the air, releasing all my pent up frustration in the worst way, yelling. "Even so, I thought that maybe if I waited, been patient, then you might have told me something on your own . . ."

"Will you just listen-"

The tears I have been trying so hard to keep inside burst out and start streaming down my face. "I don't want to lis-" My next words are cut off as Arthur seizes my shoulders and smashes our lips together. For a second I can't respond, my entire body feels paralyzed. Then, as realization sets in, I start to struggle. Hitting my fists against his chest, I attempt to push the Englishman away from me.

But my efforts are in vain. Arthur holds me steadfast, cupping my cheek as he molds our lips jointly. As this continues on, my will to fight ebbs away and my eyes flutter shut despite my struggles. By the time he finally lets me go, I've practically become a pile of mush. My entire face feels ten times hotter than it should be and all my bones are like jelly. I'm forced to hold on to Arthur to keep myself from collapsing onto the ground.

"Will you listen to me now?" He asks me, his voice out of breathe and rough sounding. Still in a dazed like state, all I can do is nod weakly. "Splendid." Arthur then leads/drags me to the nearest chair and sits me down on it. With my hands grasped in his own, the Englishman stares directly into my eyes. "I do trust you Alex; believe me when I say that poppet."

"But-"

"No interruptions, I need you to hear everything I came to say, from beginning to end. All right?" The seriousness in his tone shocks me into silence. Arthur takes this chance to carry on. "I came to apologize; my behavior at the bar was unforgivable. It's just that . . . "It looks like he's struggling to find the correct choice of words as he glances all around the room before focusing back on me. "I guess . . . I was jealous and being over protective," he mumbles, looking down at the ground.

My eyes widen as he says that. Jealous? Arthur was jealous? A part of me wants to forgive him, right there and then. But another part just can't do that, at least not yet. "I-I want to forgive you, you know. But . . ." I don't know how to explain this feeling, my minds just becoming an even more jumbled mess right now.

A hand touches my cheek lightly, and I look into glimmering pools of emerald. "That wasn't the only reason why I've come here." He pulls his hand away from my face to instead hold it out in front of me. "Take my hand." I stare at his outstretched hand, debating with myself for a split second, before reaching out and grasping it.

"Okay." All he does is leads me into the living room, directing me to sit on one of the couches. "What exactly are you planning?" Arthur smiles at me, causing my heart to shiver delightfully at the sight of it.

"You'll see." That's all he says as he disappears out the front door, only to return seconds later with a large case with the union jack on it. I stare at the case then at Arthur. He doesn't say anything, his lips lift into a slight grin as he opens the case and takes out a guitar.

At first I really don't understand why he has a guitar. But when he settles down on the couch next to me, strumming a few chords, I catch on to his plans. "You play the guitar?" I look at him with wide eyes, not believing what's right in front of me.

Arthur rubs the back of his neck sheepishly. "Not that great, but I wanted to play a little something for you. Hoping it might help persuade you to forgive me." My features soften, as he plucks a few strings to double check that the instrument is in tune before starting to play. Seconds into the music, Arthur opens his mouth and begins to sing.

_And I'd give up forever to touch you_

_Cause I know you that you feel me somehow_

My eyes water for the third time in the entire night, as he plays a smile tugs at my lips. The song sounds so familiar, warming my heart to no end. I stop thinking about it all and just listen to Arthur singing, he's actually quite good.

_You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be_

The lyrics bring a blush to my cheeks. When he sings it like that it feels so much more . . . meaningful. All the words seem to touch the deepest depths of my heart.

_And I don't want to go home right now_

_And all I can taste is this moment_

_And all I can breathe is your life_

Arthur slowly opens his eyes, having closed them before starting to sing, and stares into my own. He smiles lovingly as he notices the small tears in the corner of my eyes. I wipe away the droplets of water with the back of my hand, returning his smile with an equally affectionate one.

_Cause sooner or later it's over_

_I just don't want to miss you tonight_

With that last line, he strums on his guitar a little longer and then finishes. Silence envelopes the room for a few seconds, filling the empty space with a sense of calm and content. I feel so many emotions wash over me, the most prominent one being love for the adorable Englishman in front of me. So I willingly allow this emotion to take control, prompting me to lunge forward towards the man. Being mindful of his guitar, I hug Arthur tightly.

"I'm sorry!" I cling on to him, vaguely aware of him putting the instrument down and wrapping his arms around me. "I'm sorry for yelling at you and not even making an effort to listen." Squeezing him, I nuzzle into the crook of his neck. "All I want is for you to trust me, with all sorts of things."

His hands start caressing my face, bringing it higher so we're now eye to eye. Both guilt and joy swim in his eyes, a strange combination. "Love, you don't have to apologize. You've done nothing wrong." He brushes a strand of my hair away, his touch lingering a bit longer. "Absolutely nothing. And one day, I'll tell you everything you deserve to know."

"Really?" I question him, my eyes widening before narrowing skeptically. "You mean that?"

Arthur nods, grazing his lips lightly over my eyelids. "I swear upon my life that you'll know someday, but sadly that day isn't today." He pulls away, his hands on either side of my face. "Will you wait for me?"

Some doubts remaining in my mind cause me to hesitant in giving him an answer. But when Arthur takes my hand and kisses each individual finger, looking at me with this love struck filled gaze, I find myself agreeing whole heartedly. "O-okay, I'll wait. But you better not keep me waiting for too long; something like this may happen again if you do." Arthur's face morphs into an expression of pure horror and I giggle, giving him a quick peck to calm him down.

As my lips begin to drift away from him, Arthur brings one hand to the back of my head and pushes me back into a kiss. This lasting longer than the peck I had given. Once we finally do break apart, we're both out of breath and smiling like crazy.

"You better go," I whisper to him, carding my fingers through his golden locks one final time before standing up. "You've really come at a ridiculous time." Arthur nods reluctantly before getting up off the couch and packing up his guitar. We walk to the front door, not saying a word but relishing in our last moments together right now. I hold the door open for him, faintly smiling as he steps past me. "When do you think we'll see each other again?"

Arthur shrugs. "I have not a clue, but I hope it'll be soon." The Englishman leans in for one final kiss, smiling into it. "I'll contact you as soon as possible."

I grin devilishly. "You better not dally too long, for you never know when I'll stop waiting." Arthur rolls his eyes, knowing I'm just joking with him. "Now go on, I need to be gettting to bed." He chuckles lightly.

"Then sleep well, my love, and pray we meet again soon." Arthur winks quickly before he's off. I linger by the doorway, hoping to see him one last time. Realizing I might look a little desperate that way, I quickly close the door and escape to my room, a grin plastered on my face the entire way there.

* * *

><p>AN: The next chapter is out woohoo! My goodness that took a while to edit -_- Anyway, thank you for the reviews I always enjoy reading them haha XD. So we don't know Hetalia or the song lyrics used in this weeks chapter. Since it's been a while since this chapter was written I actually forgot the name of the song, but I know that it's one that should be pretty well known.

All right, so I currently have one more chapter already written and only needs editing before posting, after that the Brony and I will have to return to writing the rest of that chapters. Sadly though there's something of an epidemic (not really, just there's been plenty of sicknesses going around) going in our school so the Brony has been getting sick a lot. We won't be able to write more until she feels well enough to. Back to the main point! Reviews are very much welcome and make me edit faster! Hmm reviews are like cheescake! . . . now im craving for some cheesecake *drools at the thought of the dessert* . . . oh well, see all you lovely readers next week! Bye bye and enjoy this wonderful chapter!

-The Hetalian


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 9

Alex's P.O.V.

After that night, when Arthur came over to apologize, a month passed by smoothly. It did take quite a lot of persuading on Alexis's part to get me to forgive Alfred, in the end I did. Luckily there weren't any more major arguments between the boys and Alexis and me. Though on some occasions we did have small spats, but those were puny compared to the one at the bar. And most of the time those fights were about unimportant details, so they were easily dealt with.

Progress with our relationship with Alfred and Arthur has actually gotten pretty far. Some nights, when we've gone on long dates and the weather looks pretty bad, the guys stay over for the night. Of course they sleep on the couch, and no funny business. We made it pretty clear to them that they aren't allowed in our rooms whenever they spend the night.

One Friday we come back from another long date with the boys, a really funny movie at some cinema Arthur had suggested we go to. As we get closer to our condo, the weather becomes progressively worse. Once we arrive at the front of our home, it's storming so badly I can barely see anything through the windshield. Though, the fact that it's the middle of the night is part of the reason. I turn towards Arthur as he parks his car in the street in front of the door.

"Maybe it'd be a good idea if you two stayed the night; I don't want you driving home in this type of weather." Alfred grins brightly at the prospect of being able to spend more time with Alexis while Arthur opens his mouth to oppose. Before he manages to say a word, I hold a finger up to his mouth. "No arguing with me, I'm not up for debate on this matter."

Reluctantly, the Englishman shuts his mouth. Behind me, I hear Alexis tapping her window. "How are we gonna get to the house without getting soaked in the process?" She questions, looking uncertainly at the raindrops on the window.

"Don't worry! The hero will make sure you get inside without getting a single drop of rain on you!" Alfred beams, wrapping his arms around my younger sister's torso in a fleeting embrace. "Just wait here a sec." He then proceeds to open his door and jump outside. Silence reigns inside the car as soon as the American closes the door. I glance sideways, noticing Arthur having a calculating expression.

I reach over to pat his arm, planning to ask him what he's thinking about. But, just as my fingers brush against the edge of his coat sleeve, the Englishman unlocks his door and starts opening it. Arthur spots me staring at him questioningly and smiles gently. "I'll be just a moment, love." And with that, he slips out of the car, leaving my sister and me alone.

"Well now . . . them leaving so fast makes you wonder what they're up to huh?" Alexis asks, chuckling to herself. I peek over my shoulder at her, rolling my eyes.

"They probably have some weird or crazy idea on how to get us inside." Seconds after I say that, Alexis's car door opens causing her to slide away from it quickly. Standing right in front of the opening, with his brown bomber jacket off and currently over his head shielding him from the rain, is Alfred.

He grins crookedly, flicking his chin slightly back in a way of telling Alexis to come under the jacket with him. Alexis looks at him in doubt. "This is your great idea for keeping me dry?" She asks him skeptically.

"Yup!" Alfred chirps brightly.

A short bit of time passes before Alexis shrugs, a big smile stretching her lips. "Okay, let's see if this plan of yours will work." She winks at Alfred, hopping out of the car and into the American's chest. "I'm going to have to get really close to you so I don't get rained on." Alfred blushes, opens his mouth to say something only to stutter out nonsense. At his obviously flustered appearance, my sister laughs. "Just kidding!" Alexis takes a small step back, still keeping herself fully under the jacket now there's merely some space between her and Alfred. "Come on, let's go."

She grasps his wrist and starts leading him towards the house, quickly disappearing into the dark. I spot Arthur scowling as he closes the car door the two had left open, after that he opens my own door. Above him I perceive the outline of an umbrella, keeping him nice and dry. "Here we are, poppet." He holds the umbrella closer to the car so that when I step out there aren't any stray droplets falling onto me.

I shake my head slowly at his offer. "You don't have to hold the umbrella out for me." At his quizzical look, I explain further. "I actually quite enjoy walking in the rain without an umbrella; you could say that it soothes my soul."

Arthur looks at me sternly. "I'm not letting you get out of this car unless you come under the umbrella with me. You'll catch a cold if you walk around in this weather, and that's the last thing I ever want to happen to you." Minutes pass with the two of us just staring at one another. From his stance I can tell he's not going to budge on his decision.

So, since the cool wind coming into the car starts making me shiver, I relent. "Fine . . ." Letting out a defeated sigh, I slide over my seat and out the car. Arthur offers his hand to me, his once grim expression now a soft smile. I pout as I take his outstretched hand. "Next time I'm not going to back down so easily."

"Then I guess next time you'll just be trapped in the car for god knows how long." The Englishman smirks at me wickedly. As we walk to the house, I glare at him.

"You wouldn't dare."

He shrugs, still keeping that smirk on his face. "Who knows, maybe I will, or maybe I won't." I slap his shoulder playfully.

"I can't believe you, you're so mean." Arthur chuckles before leaning down to nuzzle his nose against my cheek lovingly.

"You know it's not like that, dearest." For a second I relish his touch. Warmth spreads from all the place's the Englishman touches. Once we reach the door, wide open from Alexis's and Alfred's entrance, I step from under the umbrella and into the house. While Arthur shakes out the umbrella by the doorway, I walk into the living room

Near the couch, Alexis helps Alfred with laying out blankets. My sister notices me standing close to the opposite couch and grins. "Finally decided to join us in the house, my dear sister?" Grabbing a different blanket, she tosses it over to me. "Since you're here now, why not get the other couch ready for your loving boyfriend."

I huff quietly, making my way around the couch to the front of it. "We weren't out there for that long, were we?" Alfred laughs as he grabs hold of Alexis's waist, pulling her down along with him as he sits on the couch.

"Dude, you were out there long enough for us to wonder what kind of shit you two were doing out there." Alexis, now in the American's lap, looks up at him pointedly.

"Watch it with the swearing."

He smiles sheepishly, rubbing both of her forearms relaxingly. "Sorry about that, babe." They snuggle closer together just as Arthur enters the room, a little damp but for the most part still dry.

Glancing at the cuddling duo, he shakes his head slightly before walking to my side. "Do you need any assistance here, love?" Remembering the Englishman's threat from earlier, I look away stubbornly.

"No, I'm good without your help." Arthur, having seen through my childish antics, chuckles softly at my denial.

He ruffles my hair fondly, despite my protests, and heads towards the kitchen. "All right, since you don't need me I'll make us some tea." Almost immediately I feel a pang of guilt for having disregarded him like that.

"Artie . . ." The Englishman turns towards me with a questioningly look. I shuffle my feet, shifting my eyes from the floor to him. "I'm sorry and . . . t-thank you." Arthur stares at me in surprise, and then strolls forward so he's right in front of me.

Cupping one side of my face, I go on my tiptoes so that he can easily brush our lips together. A faint blush creeps over my cheeks as we separate while Arthur gives me a half smile. "It's okay; I'll be back in a few minutes." He lets me go and walks into the kitchen.

When I turn back to the couch, already starting to unfold the blanket in my hands, I catch sight of Alexis giving me a look. "What?"

"Nothing," she looks at me understandingly, "nothing at all." Alfred stares at her in confusion too, equally clueless to what my sisters thinking.

I opt to ignore her and focus on getting the sheet on the couch, all wrinkles and folds out of it. After the entire blanket is out and straight, with pillows fluffed up, Arthur returns from the kitchen with two steaming mugs of tea. He hands me one, nodding my thanks I breathe in the heavenly aroma of Earl Grey. With just a single sip my tensed muscles relax and I feel exactly how tired my body really is.

Rubbing my eyes with the hand not holding the mug, I struggle to hold back a yawn. Arthur smiles and grazes his fingertips over cheeks, trailing down to my lips, stopping at the side of my neck. "Love, you're exhausted. Why don't you go and get some sleep."

"But . . ." The Englishman silences me with a finger from his free hand, tapping my lips twice. I understand that he's concerned about me so I decide not to argue with him. "All right, I'll go. But um . . ." A blush dusts my cheeks. ". . . May I have one more kiss before I go?" Arthur looks at me in surprise than chuckles, a smile making its way upon his face.

"Of course you may." He leans in and gives me a sweet yet quick peck on my lips. Though I wish the kiss had been longer, I'm satisfied enough to go upstairs without making a fuss.

But before making my way to the stairs I turn to Alexis, who's gotten off Alfred's lap and is now on her own feet. "Come on. If I'm going up you're coming with me." Alexis makes a whining noise in the back of her throat.

"Do I really have to? Can't I just stay down here for a little longer?" She looks at me with these huge puppy dog eyes, even going so far as to stick her bottom lip out and making it tremble.

I shake my head, the action causing my sister to deflate. "I'm sorry, it's not that I don't trust these two but I'm not about to leave you down here all on your own. Now get your butt upstairs."

Alexis crosses her arms in front of her, pouting. "Meanie . . ." she mumbles prior to kissing Alfred on both his cheeks. "Good night, Alfie."

"G'night, sweet pea. Sleep well." He grins at her and she returns that with a smile of her own. I watch them for a moment then give Arthur a small smile. The Englishman looks at me fondly, brushing a strand of hair out of my eyes. After he drops his hand, I slowly head to the stairs with my sister trailing reluctantly behind me.

With a last goodnight in the boy's direction, we make our way up the stairs. As soon as we reach the top of the stairs we part ways, Alexis to her room and I to my own. Of course we do call out goodnight to each other before closing our respective room doors. In my room, I head straight to my wardrobe and pull out a pair of black cotton shorts and a green tank top. I set the clothes down on the counter in the bathroom connected to the bedroom.

Before changing into my pajamas, I take a quick lukewarm shower. Once I'm all cleaned up, snug in my pj's, and teeth brushed, I walk out of the bathroom and into my room, crawling into bed. On any other day I'd read for an hour or two and then turn the light off to sleep. But tonight my entire body feels so drained that I skip the reading and just go straight to sleep. I swiftly switch the lamp on my nightstand off and nestle deeper into my pillows, releasing a long content sigh.

My eyes have only been shut for a few minutes when the peaceful silence is broken by a blood curdling scream. I shoot up in my bed, eyes wide in confusion and pure fear. "That sounds like Alexis!" Scrambling out of bed, I rush to my door. But just as my fingertips brush against the cool metal of the doorknob, a hand comes out of nowhere and grabs my hair, jerking me backwards. The pull causes me to start falling backwards, I open my mouth to scream as another hand quickly covers it up.

Panic builds up inside me at a fast rate, my voice shrieks out only to sound like soft gibberish because of the hand over my mouth. I attempt to get look at the person holding me, only to discover the room too dark to see a thing. Whoever's holding me back tightens their grip on my hair and starts to drag me away from the door. 'This doesn't look good' I think, panicking both in my mind and body.

I try to struggle by lashing out my arms in random directions. A grunt from behind me tells me that one of my arms must have hit their target. But my victory is short lived as the assailant hits the side of my head violently, causing me to become dazed. I would have fallen onto the ground if it hadn't been for the tight grip on my hair. Suddenly the hand over my mouth vanishes only to return seconds later, this time with a piece of cloth. Almost immediately I know the cloth has chloroform on it, learned that from all those crime solving TV shows I watch, so I try my hardest not to breathe it in.

Though, one can't hold their breath forever, unless they have the intention of suffocating themselves, which I don't. So after a few minutes of holding my breath, I'm forced to take in air, since my head starts feeling lightheaded, and end up breathing in the chloroform anyway. Just as my eyes flutter shut and my consciousness starts slipping away, I faintly hear a door slam open and a muffled voice that sounds vaguely like Arthur's voice. But darkness consumes me before I'm able to figure out if it really is him.

* * *

><p>Alexis's P.O.V.<p>

A gloved hand covers my mouth to stifle the blood curdling scream I just released. An unknown person's arm wraps around my torso so I'm unable to use my arms to fight back. I thrash my body around along with my still unbound legs to try and escape the masked being's hold, but that ultimately fails.

Moments ago I had been lying comfortably in my bed just after turning all the light off. Then things happened and now I'm currently being dragged closer and closer to my bedroom's only window. The exact second we make it to the wall the windows at my bedroom door bursts open. Light instantly streams in from the hallway, until two figures block it. In the doorway stands Alfred, cheeks slightly red from having rushed up all the stairs. Arthur stands behind him, sees the man keeping me captive, and makes a mad dash for my sister's room.

"Let her go, _now," _Alfred demands with a tone that promises pain if not listened to. His face darkens with all out fury and rage. The arm around me tightens even more as the kidnapper behind me freezes in unadulterated terror. I slowly stop fighting and begin to breathe heavily. "Didn't you hear me? I said let her fucking go," the pissed off American snarls out, slowly edging closer. Tears spring to my eyes and roll down my face from fright. I scream from underneath the hand still covering my mouth and try to reach out towards Alfred. The sight and sound of my anguish causes Alfred to snap.

He charges straight towards my captor, his expression angrier than ever before. The man holding me tosses me onto the bed and tries to escape out the window. Alfred snatches him by the hood of his jacket he's wearing and swings him backwards harshly onto the carpeted floor. Taking a closer look at him, I notice his entire attire is all black and he has a mask tied over his face.

The guy jumps onto his feet with practiced ease, throwing a fast punch in the American's direction. It's easily stopped by Alfred's hand blocking the hit and then grabbing onto the fist. He takes this chance to slam his foot into the masked man's ribs. The kick makes the man go sailing, crashing against the opposite wall of my room with a sickening thud from Alfred's inhumane strength. Without missing a beat, which is pretty impressive, the almost kidnapper rolls along the wall until he's next to the window and slyly slides out of it.

Alfred stands rigid, panting heavily, staring intently out the window the man had escaped from. I slowly slide off the bed and shuffle closer to him. He notices me and turns, winding his arms around me securely in a protective hug. The tears that had run down my cheeks moments ago start up again.

It only takes seconds for me to begin sobbing into Alfred's chest and he strokes my hair soothingly. "I promise you, something like this will never happen again as long as I'm here," he whispers so softly yet loud enough for me to hear. His grasp tightens to the point of it being painful before he pulls back. "Let's make sure Alex and Arthur are okay. It's possible that if they've tried to take you then they could've attempted to do the same to her." I look up, my eyes steadily widening, at Alfred.

The thought of my sister going through what I went through and being kidnapped nearly scares me to death. I nod my head hurriedly, releasing my death grip on the American, and heading to my sister's room with him. Upon arriving at the door, we discover it looking undisturbed. Glancing sideways at each other, we open the door cautiously only to find Arthur standing above an unconscious man. This man is also dressed in all black like the man who had been in my room. The Brit looks up at the two of us in surprise before sighing in relief.

I look around the room for my sister and find her out cold on her bed. Immediately I rush to her side while Alfred goes to Arthur. Crawling onto the bed as fast as possible, I move closer to Alex's unconscious form so I can check her pulse just to make sure she isn't dead. Placing my fingers right along her neck, I deem her still alive. They probably knocked her out with some sort of gas since there aren't any signs of violence other than a bruise forming from her jaw to her temple.

"Hey, Arthur, do you mind taking my sister downstairs and laying her on the couch? I'm sure neither of us wants to be alone tonight and I'd like to be able to make sure she wakes up all right," I explain, looking over at my sister's boyfriend.

"What about him?" Arthur questions, gesturing to the man that's sprawled by his feet.

With a quick glance to the man, I think for a second. "Hmm, Alfred and I will tie him up. There should be some rope in the garage," I reply, getting off of my sister's bed. Arthur marches over and picks Alex up as if she weighed close to nothing. "Alfie, would you watch the guy in black while I go fetch some rope?" He nods solemnly, staying where he's at as Arthur starts walking out of the room with Alex in snug his arms. I follow behind them walking down the stairs then, once at the bottom, veer off in a different direction towards the garage. In the garage I easily find the rope in a cupboard next to the door and quickly head back to Alex's room.

"I never figured you would keep rope in this house," Alfred states as I kneel next to the comatose criminal with rope in my hands.

"I'm not really sure why it's here either. Alex just always has some rope in the garage," I answer, chuckling as I hand the rope to Alfred. He kneels across from me on the other side of the almost kidnapper and begins to unravel some of the rope. The stranger is already laying face down so we start with his hands. With me lifting the hands up, Alfred ties them up tightly. "I hope whatever knocked Alex out doesn't keep her passed out for too long," I mumble worriedly.

The American glances up at me sympathetically for a second before focusing on tying. "It shouldn't. I don't think she breathed that much of it in from what Arthur told me," Alfred remarks absently, concentrating on the task in front of him. I nod slowly. When he's finally done we move on to his legs.

"Do you think I should get some duct tape?" I ask him, eyeing the man's masked face.

"Why?" He questions, looking up at me with a puzzled expression.

"To put it over his mouth so he won't scream for help or anything when he wakes up," I reply, wringing my hands together anxiously.

Alfred laughs tenderly, "Yeah sure, if you want to," he says, smiling. Seeing his smile, I'm quick to smile back.

"I actually have some in the bathroom from when I used it to fix a hairbrush a while back." Getting up, I race to my bathroom and grab the tape, running back. "Here it is!" I holler, handing it straight to Alfred. By then he's done with tying the legs up and is now next to the man's head. The American removes the man's mask and reveals him to be a middle aged man with black messy hair. I shiver a little.

"Don't worry babe, he can't hurt you," Alfred answers upon noticing my fear. I nod and he easily tears off a piece of duct tape, placing it over the stranger's mouth.

"W-what should we do with him?" I ask shakily.

The American grins wickedly. "Do you have a closet close by to stuff him in?" I stare at him with wide eyes. "I'm kidding! I'll just call some people to take him away and you and Alex will never have to worry about him again," he promises.

"Okay," I agree. "Can you take care of the rest here?" Alfred nods confidently.

"I'll be down in a bit. You go check on your sister," he says reassuringly. With a small smile, I stand up and walk to the door, quickly scaling down the stairs. I head into the living room to see Arthur drinking a cup of tea while sitting next to Alex.

With tentative steps, I approach him. "How's she doing?" I ask, plopping down on the free loveseat.

"The same, but she has been moving a bit more," Arthur responds, his brows knit together in worry. "Is Alfred finishing up with that problem upstairs?" I nod my head, keeping my eyes trained on my unconscious sister. She suddenly squirms in her sleep, rolling onto her side so that she's now facing us.

"Arthur . . . !" she groans and I can't help chuckling. Peeking over at Arthur, I watch him smile weakly.

He gets up off the chair he had been resting on and stoops down next to my sister's head, taking her hand and squeezing it slightly. "I'm here love," he whispers affectionately. Alex, seemingly having heard him, smiles in her slumber. I lean back into the loveseat, viewing probably the cutest couple in the world. Just then I hear footsteps make their way down the stairs and Alfred enters the living room. I look up at him and smile. He grins back and takes the seat next to me.

"Is everything taken care of?" I whisper once he's all situated. He nods once before wrapping his arm around me, keeping me close to him.

In a voice slightly louder than my own, "Ivan will be here within the hour," he responds grimly, though he's directing those words more to his brother than me. Arthur hums to show he heard the American.

"I don't feel safe with the two of you staying here anymore," Arthur grumbles, still looking at my sister's sleeping figure.

"Where else would we go? There's our dad's place but we can't exactly just randomly come out of nowhere and ask him if we could stay over," I tell him.

Arthur glances up towards me before focusing back on Alex. "You two could stay at my house. There are plenty of empty guest rooms. If you stay there it'd be easier to keep you and Alex safe," he mumbles, moving his thumb in soothing circles on the top of my sister's hand.

"That sounds like a good idea," I say while snuggling closer to Alfred. "And I'm pretty sure Alex wouldn't mind either. But I have one question; who exactly were those assholes?" I inquire, looking up at Alfred as he snorts.

"People plotting something, something bad," he replies, sighing tiredly. I want to ask more questions but keeping focusing on the conversation is starting to get a little difficult as my adrenaline wears off.

We sit in silence for a little while, no one making an attempt to start a conversation. When I'm on the borderline of falling sleep I hear a quiet, ". . . I love you Arthur . . ." With my last bit of strength I open my eyes slightly.

"I love you too, my precious flower," Arthur replies earnestly to my sleeping sister. I smile slightly before succumbing to the darkness we call slumber.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm sooo sorry this was so late! . I haven't had a lot of time to do much editing this week so I spent most of today hurrying to get everything done. So if there are stupid mistakes in spelling and grammer I apologize! We don't own Hetalia, no matter how hard I wish we did . . . Anyway just to remind everyone the next chapters have been planned out but not yet written and right now the Brony is in a writing slump. So if you could review and give her some encouragement or wish her luck or something like that I'm sure that would help wonders. Lastly, before I'm off for the night, idea's for who exactly the group the kidnappers belong to are welcome! Enjoy this chapter and see you all in the next one!

-The Hetalian


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 10

Alexis's P.O.V.

Once we woke up the next morning and ate breakfast, Alfred wasn't going to talk without food in his stomach, the boys decided that Alex and I should stay at Arthur's home. They explained it would be safer for us there since they could keep a closer eye on us. I'm not really fond of being treated like some damsel in distress but since it'll give me more time to spend with my favorite American I'm not complaining. So as soon as Arthur and Alfred left, we headed to our respective rooms to pack the basic necessities: clothes, toothbrushes, blankets, and other things as well.

"Alexis!" My sister calls out from her room.

"Yeah!?" I respond just as loud so she can hear me through the walls.

There's a slight pause before she answers, "Did you make sure to pack socks with you?"

"Doing that now!" I yell back, walking to my dresser and pulling out a handful of regular socks and a couple pairs of fuzzy ones. "All I have left to pack is my toothbrush and then I'll be set to go." Stepping out of my room, I mosey on into the bathroom I share with Alex.

With little trouble, I locate and snatch my toothbrush from atop the counter and return to my room. Grabbing one of the many small baggies laying around on my bed, I place the toothbrush inside and then shove it into my suitcase. That having been the last thing I needed, I quickly zip up the large bag. Once completely closed, I stroll into my sister's room to see how her packing's going.

Looking at Alex's own suitcase, I almost laugh aloud at how close to its maximum capacity it is, yet she's folding up one last shirt to force into it. "You almost done?" I question her tightly, struggling to keep my laughter from escaping. She glances up, narrows her eyes in suspicion, and nods her head.

"I'm almost done here. What about you?" My sister asks, her focus back on folding the shirt neatly.

"Totally done."

"Then we're done fairly early." She finishes folding the shirt and sets it delicately in her bag, proceeding to zip it closed. "Would you like to go downstairs and have some tea while we wait for our ride?"

A grin almost instantly spreads across my face at her words. "Yay tea!" I reply gleefully. Alex smiles as she passes by me, through the doorway, heading downstairs. I hasten to follow her. "When exactly are Alfred and Arthur coming to pick us up?"

My sister taps her chin thoughtfully. "Around 3 if I remember correctly." We reach the bottom of the stairs and turn into the kitchen. Upon entering the room, Alex takes the kettle from the stove and fills it full of water from the sink. "What kind of tea would you prefer?"

"Whatever you're having works for me," I say, flopping onto a seat at the island. It's silent between us for the few moments it takes the water to boil. Alex pours the water into two mugs, each with a teabag, and sets one in front of me before grabbing the other and sitting across from me. After letting the silence draw another couple of seconds longer, I can't take it anymore and blurt out without thinking, "How are you feeling?"

My sister looks at me weirdly. "I'm perfectly fine. Why do you ask?"

"Well . . . it's just . . . you were knocked out by some kind of gas last night! What if bad side effects start popping up!" I express my concern loud and clear.

A soft smile appears on my sister's face, thoroughly confusing me. How can she smile when her life could be in danger?! "I feel as healthy as a horse; there isn't any need for you to worry," Alex assures gently. "Anyway, are-"

_Ding Dong_

The sound of the door bell ringing interrupts my sister before she finishes her sentence. "Are they here?" I ask unsurely. Alex stands up, shuffles to the doorway, and peers around the edge into the window next to the front door.

"No, I don't think it's them. Though, there's a car parked out front," she answers me.

A scary thought comes to mind. "Do you think it could be those peoples back-up, you know the ones who tried to kidnap us?" I inquire, my voice trembling in badly hidden fear.

"That's unlikely. But uh," she hesitates, suddenly getting nervous. "Hand me a frying pan just in case." At her request, I get up and search in a cupboard, pulling out one of the medium sized frying pans. I quickly pass the potential weapon into her hands. She grips onto it with a firm grasp, cautiously sliding to the door. Suddenly she stops when the voices of two people arguing quite loudly come from behind it. One voice has a very strong Italian accent while the other is more German sounding.

"It's not my fault all you German potato heads are idiota's!" Yells the Italian accented voice angrily.

The German accented voice is quick to defend them self. "I'm not German! I am Prussian! And I am more awesome than you'll ever hope to be!" Alex, who had been preparing to swing the pan, lets her arms fall to her side, a slightly disappointed expression on her face. She jerks open the door, surprising both men standing outside.

"What are you two doing here?" My sister probes them, holding onto the door handle loosely. I waltz up next to her, already having a pretty good idea of who the intruders might be. There, just like I thought, stands an albino Prussian and a brown haired Italian that looks almost identical to Feliciano. At the sight of us, they attempt to compose themselves.

"I uh . . . we um . . . we came to see how you guys have been doing," Lovino states pathetically, scratching the back of his neck due to his nerves.

At Lovino's concern, Alex smiles slightly. "We're doing okay," she answers hurriedly. "Would you like to come in? We were just about to have some tea before you came." The foreigner's exchange a look then nod, my sister and I move out of their way so they can enter.

As we lead them into the kitchen, I decide to ask them a question to break the ice, "What have you guys been up too?" Once back in the room, I sit down next to my tea while Alex returns the pan to its original place. Gilbert and Lovino settle in the two chairs on either side of me.

"Working, traveling, same old, same old," Lovino states casually, waving his left hand in circles in the air.

"Same. Except I'm still Awesome," Gilbert replies smugly, grinning largely. "What about you ladies? You make up with that American idiot and stuck up British man?"

I laugh while my sister frowns. "Yeah, we're all good with them now. Actually, we've decided to stay at Arthur's home for a little while." My sister's body jerks in my direction. The look she gives me makes me think I just spit fire or something. But she catches herself and quickly stops giving me that look.

"It's only because of given circumstances. Have either Arthur or Alfred told you anything?" Alex asks the two men, folding her hands carefully in her lap. Gilbert and Lovino exchange glances again before shaking their heads no.

"Do you think it's alright to tell them?" I say quizzically to my sister.

She stares at her hands for a few seconds, twiddling her fingers, and then shrugs. "I guess it's all right, considering you guys are co workers and all." Her frown deepens with her next words. "This is just an assumption, and I don't like to assume things, but I think what happened has something to do with their jobs somehow." Alex stares at Gilbert and Lovino intensely, taking a deep breath before explaining. "Alexis and I were almost kidnapped last night by a group of strange masked men."

Lovino scowls fiercely, his eyes ablaze, while the Prussian slams his fists violently onto the table. "Damn it!" He roars loudly, his voice takes on a whining tone for his next words, "My brother doesn't tell me anything anymore."

"So? When do the two of you leave? Are those bastardo's coming to pick you up soon?" Romano asks more gruffly than usual.

"Yup, they'll be here in a few hours. We're already packed and everything," I say chirpily, attempting to lift the mood in the kitchen.

From the corner of my eye I notice Gilbert perk up. "We could give you dame a ride to their place," he says happily. "I drove here so we can take my car. Plus, I actually know where Arthur lives." I look over at Alex for her answer.

She smiles at me then turns it towards the boys. "That would be very kind of you; I hope it won't be much trouble for you. Plus, I'm sure that Artie and Alfred wouldn't mind either." At her words, I nod in agreement.

"All right then," the Prussian says, hopping out of his chair with Lovino doing the same though without the hop. "I'm sure you want the awesome me to carry down your bags with my awesome muscles right?" He cheekily asks me. I can't help the laugh that comes from lips as Lovino and Alex begin to head up the stairs. Gilbert and I follow up after them.

Lovino grabs my sister's bags while Gilbert grabs mine. We walk back downstairs and I rush to open the front door for the boys so they can take our luggage to Gilbert's car. Once the bags are secure in the trunk, I slide into the backseat along with my sister.

"I hope Alfred and Arthur won't get mad that we're coming early," Alex states worriedly.

I let out a sigh slowly. "Me too."

* * *

><p>Alex's P.O.V.<p>

The car ride to Arthur's house, located in the middle of the forest on the outskirts of London by what Lovino grumbled out, takes a reasonable amount of time. After my sister and I thoroughly explained what had occurred the night before to the two foreigners, a tension filled silence falls over us. A feeling of déjà vu floods over me as this situation seems to be much like something that happened in the near past. Only, that was with two very blonde and very lovable men.

"How much longer till we get there?" Alexis asks Gilbert, who's the one currently driving. Before we had set off to Arthur's, the Albino had made it clear that we should never allow an Italian to drive if we wanted to keep our lunch in our stomachs. Of course, that comment earned him a cuffing upside the head from the fiery tempered Italian.

Gilbert glances in the rearview mirror, locking eyes with my sister, and grins wickedly at her. "Almost there, we're maybe a few minutes away." He pauses for a second, his smile turning mischievous. "My awesome driving has brought you lovely ladies to your destination safe and sound," he states smugly, looking over to the Brunet sitting next to him. "Unlike if you had allowed this guy to drive. Go on, you can thank me."

"Chigi! You're the bad driver here potato bastard! You're driving like a fucking turtle!" Lovino screeches angrily from his seat, his face lighting up to a bright red in anger. I can't help but chuckle at him, causing the two foreigners in the front to glance back toward me. "What's so funny, mama orso?"

My younger sister gives me a strange look when Lovino calls me mama orso, but I ignore it in favor of answering the Italian. "The answer is, you two. It might not be the right thing or right time to say, but I'm going to say it anyway. When you men fight it's actually quite entertaining to watch."

Lovino gawks at me while Gilbert cackles. "It's only entertaining cause the awesome me is the one that comes out on top every time!" While the Prussian man laughs his grip on the steering wheel slips and the car swerves dangerously to the left.

"Watch the fucking road, you stupid potato bastard!" The Italian shrieks, pawing at the steering wheel, trying to get it back under control. Gilbert slaps his hands away, effectively and effortlessly straightening the car on the road.

"No worries, I've got this all under control." The Prussian grins back at us cockily.

The moment the car started to lose control, I clutched at the seat in front of me while my sister held on to her own seat. Once the car returned to normal, Alexis chuckles nervously. "I'm not saying that that wasn't a fun little . . . moment, I'm just going to ask that we don't ever do that again."

"Agreed," I murmur, struggling to loosen my grip from the Lovino's seat's headrest. The Italian nods his head mutely, staring out the windshield with a nasty scowl.

A few minutes pass by quickly and it doesn't take long for Gilbert to call out vigorously. "We have arrived, meine dame, at the home of the stuffy, old Brit." I open my mouth to deny those comments only to have it hang open at the sight of the mansion in front of us. It actually takes our car another few minutes to drive up the long driveway and park.

Alexis and I open the car doors and step out at nearly the same time, staring at the building in complete awe. "T-this is A-Arthur's ho-house?" My sister squeaks out weakly, her blue eyes wide open. The mansion itself is two stories high, maybe even three, and is painted white with black trimmings bordering the windows and door. Bushes of flowers grow next to door, giving the building a fairy tale book setting appearance. Two steps lead to the front door, a door bell button on the wall to the left of the door handle.

Gilbert slips out of the driver's side of the car and grins at us, a roguish sparkle in his crimson eyes. "So dame, what do you think?"

"I-It's giant . . ." I manage to say feebly.

"Uh huh," Alexis replies after me.

I hear another car door slam shut and tear my eyes away from the mansion to glance back at Lovino. He takes one look at the house, scowls, and then starts mumbling to himself under his breath. When he notices me watching him he stops mumbling and his glare turns into a questioning look. Instead of verbally answering, I gesture to Arthur's mansion and mouth a 'what's wrong?' to him.

He shakes his head before walking around the car to stand next to Gilbert. "We better go potato bastard. If those two other bastards see us here they're going to get into another one of their pissy moods. I'd rather not deal with that kind of shit today." The Prussian's good mood drops at that.

"Damn, you're right. They get so unawesome at those times." I look between the two guys, remembering the argument my sister and me had with Alfred and Arthur about these guys.

When peeking over at Alexis to my right, I can tell she remembers the same thing I do. She steps forward, her expression full of determination. "You don't need to worry about them hassling you. We had a talk with them and they've come to understand that you're not bad people."

Her words seem to reassure Gilbert, Lovino not so much though. He mutters something which I can barely make out as, "I'm not so sure . . . ."

"And if they do start anything," I continue instead of my sister, "then we'll defend you to the bitter end." With my sister's promise and my assurance, the two men both finally seem satisfied.

Right that exact second, the front door of Arthur's mansion slams open and the owner of the building himself comes stomping out. Close to his heels is Alfred, one of the American's signature smiles stretching over his face. They walk off the porch and onto driveway, stopping almost instantly when the two of them finally take notice of our little party outside.

"A-Alexis . . . ?" Alfred stutters out, his smile disappears and in its place appears a look of complete confusion. My sister waves at him, the grin on her face giving away her joy at seeing the American.

Arthur, on the other hand, doesn't freeze up like the taller blonde, instead he takes in who our company is and stiffly moves to my side. "Alex," he acknowledges. I smile gently, trying to soothe the Englishman without using words. He relaxes, but only by a fraction, and turns toward Gilbert and Lovino. "Gentleman, I suppose you were the ones to have brought Alex and her sister here early."

The Italian turns his head in disregard while the Prussian sniggers. "Ja, the awesome me drove them here while this unawesome one," Gilbert ruffles Lovino's hair earning some colorful language in the process, "came to be entertainment for the dame."

"I'm not some sort of freak show at your disposal bastardo!" Arthur sighs tiredly as he rubs at his temples with one hand. I hear loud, rather familiar, laughter coming from behind Arthur, which is most likely coming from Alfred. My speculation is correct when I peer around my Englishman and find the American and my sister laughing together with smiles stretching over their faces.

All seems to be going well, no fights have yet to start, besides the one happening between Gilbert and Lovino right then. The four of us watch the mostly one-sided fight, laughing a majority of the time at the antics used by the two foreigners. A few punches and kicks along with a sea of name calling later, Alfred steps forward with a good-natured smile.

"Well, dudes, thanks for bringing the ladies here. We really appreciate it." Arthur nods in silent agreement. "If you guys don't mind, come on in." The comment must have surprised the Englishman because he grabs the American by the collar and drags him away from the rest of us, whispering almost furiously into his ear.

I'm unable to hear a word spoken between the two from where I stand; the same must be for my sister by the clueless expression on her face. Even the boys behind us both have puzzled looks. Not much time passes before the two blonde men return with varying expressions. Alfred appears ecstatic, his eyes bright with unbridled glee, while Arthur looks to be even more tired than he was earlier.

"So yeah, as I was saying, come on in!" The American says with no restraint. "Me and Arthur-"

"It's Arthur and I, Alfred," Arthur mutters loud enough for the taller blonde to hear.

Alfred rolls his eyes in an overdramatic fashion. "Okay okay don't get your boxers in a twist, old man." At this, Arthur's face turns a molten red. "'Arthur and I' were actually heading out to go pick up some last minute things for the girl's stay." He stops there, his gaze transfixed on Alexis.

Picking up where the American left off, Arthur takes a deep breath and continues, "Since there were still a few hours till the allotted time, we thought we'd have plenty of time to retrieve those previously mentioned items."

"Should we not have come early?" I ask him hesitantly. My question instantly turns the Englishman's attention to me. He reaches over and brushes his fingertips over my cheek lightly, smiling fondly at me.

"It's fine, love. There's nothing wrong with you coming early. We're just a little . . . unprepared is all." While Arthur was comforting me, my sister and the boys were heading into Arthur's home, which I'm positive is a mansion.

Alfred calls outside after everyone but the two of us are inside. "Come on slow pokes, enough with the flirting and get your asses in the house!" The Englishman's hand, still at my cheek, tenses. Peeking up, I almost giggle out loud at the look of pure displeasure on his face.

"Such vulgar language," Arthur grumbles bitterly. This time I allow myself to laugh openly, causing him to blush. He promptly stutters out, his entire face bright red, "S-shall we?"

I nod, a smile playing at my lips. "We shall." We walk to the door, our shoulder's knock against each other. At the contact, the blush on Arthur's face intensifies.

Indoors, the mansion looks as stunning as it does on the outside. To our left is a medium sized drawing room, to our right is a decorative dining room, and in front of us stretches a long hallway. Some of the visible furniture looks to be from the Victorian age, worn from age but still looking as brilliant as it did in its prime. The rest is more modern such as the two sofas, aTV, and other small pieces of though there're from different time periods, the setup appears to be well thought out and blends the two era's well.

Alexis looks around at everything in incredulity, her mouth hanging wide open. "This place is . . . um . . . uh . . ."

"Mind-blowing?" I supply helpfully for her. My sister nods distractedly, keeping her eyes glued on her surroundings. "I completely agree with you."

Lovino and Gilbert proceed into the drawing as if they've been here several times before now, which they probably have. Alexis and I move to join them but stop when we notice that Alfred and Arthur aren't following. "We're just gonna step out for a bit to get those things we need," the American starts. "We won't be long!" He winks charmingly at my sister, grabs Arthur by the back of his shirt, and starts dragging the man out the door.

"Wait! Stop pulling me, I can walk perfectly fine without your help, you git! Shit . . . release me, you . . . you . . . bloody arse!" The Englishman continues to scream out insult after insult as he's taken through the door.

As the door shuts, muffling the angry shouts, my sister and I look at one another. "What do you want to do while we wait for them?" I ask. Alexis takes another swift glance at the house's interior.

"How about venturing around this place, exploring and getting a feel of our temporary home?" It's a good idea and I'm quick to agree. By the time we're done investigating, the boys should be back from whatever they're doing.

"Why not, we'll need to inform Gilbert and Lovino though. Maybe one of the two might want to join us." After an assenting motion from my sister, we walk into the drawing room where the Prussian lounges on one of the sofas and the Italian inspects a portrait hanging on a wall opposite of the doorway.

The moment we enter the room, the two foreigners look up. "Did those bastard's leave?" I nod and Lovino scowls. "Did they say where they're going?"

"No, they just left abruptly. Hey, is it all right if my sister and I take a closer look around the house?" The Italian shrugs as he strides out of the room.

"Do what you want. Just don't stray too far from the mansion," he mumbles gruffly as he passes us. "I'm starving; I'll be in the kitchen making some damn pasta."

Once Lovino's out of the room, Gilbert pushes off the couch and saunters over. "Well, I guess the awesome me will go get your luggage from my car." As he steps passed, he ruffles both our heads. "Have fun exploring."

"We will," my sister and I sing out at the same time. Together we hurry out of the drawing room and down the long hallway. A little ways down are two doors opposite from one another. I open the one on the left while Alexis opens the one on the right. Peeking inside, I find a room with an oak desk and large leatherchair behind it. On the desk, piles of papers and documents cover the wooden surface.

I glance across to the other door and find my sister closing the door softly. "Nothing interesting, just a closest," she says. "What's in that room?"

"An office, I'm thinking this is where Arthur works." Alexis peers over my shoulder into the room. "We might be able to learn more about this mysterious job if we snoop around in here."

My comment causes my sister to stare at me in disbelief and anger. "Alex! I can't believe you would suggest something so bad like rifling through someone else's belongings without their consent, especially Arthur's belongings!"

My eyes shift down to the floor, shame written all over my face. "Sorry . . . I-I guess I still haven't completely gotten over it." Alexis looks at me with sympathy, patting my arm in a comforting manner. We back away from the room, shutting the door, and start traveling further into the mansion. "Onward to the next area?"

"Yup, continuing our awesome adventure in the mansion!" And we go on, checking all rooms we have access too. Some doors were locked and those we decided to leave alone. What we found on the first floor were more storage rooms, a library (which I girlishly squealed at the sight of), the kitchen, a few bathrooms, and a small laundry room. The second floor had another office, bathrooms, and several bedrooms. The last place we haven't yet explored is the backyard.

Stepping outside feels like stepping into a completely different world. Flowers of all different species and colors surround the area around the house. A majority of the flowers growing there are roses of red, white, and yellow. Small, colorful butterflies flutter around the blooming buds, along with bee's collecting pollen. My sister and I stumble out, mesmerized of the sight before us.

"Wow . . ." I walk closer to one of the rose bushes, crouch down beside it, and take a whiff of its sweet scent. ". . . Beautiful."

Alexis spins around in circles, giggling like a child filled with wonder. "Beautiful is right; it seems Arthur has a very green thumb." Smiling, I turn to respond to her comment but freeze upon taking notice of the human figure looming behind her.

"Alexis, watch out!" I shoot forward, scratching against the thorns of the roses in my panic, and charge towards the figure. Before I can reach her, hands grab my arms and drag me backward. "Alexis!"

My sister spun around at my warning; sadly, it had come too late. I struggle against my assailant, trying to free myself. "Alex!" The desperate scream fuels the fight inside me. I feel another pair of hands start restraining me once my flailing arms and legs begin hitting their marks. From the corner of my eye, I watch in horror as a person dressed in all black knocks my sister out by pressing a pressure point in her neck with a lot of force.

As she slumps forward, now unconscious, I scream out with desperation. "Alexis!" I feel a something pinch the left side of my neck. The pain from the pinch disappears just as quickly as it comes and my body starts feeling heavy and numb. My world tilts as the ground falls from underneath me. "Ar . . . thur . . . h-help . . ." I whimper before my knees buckle and my mind shuts down.

* * *

><p>AN: I'm sooooooooo sorry for the late update! *kneels down and pleads for forgiveness* My laptop has officially left this world *cries at my laptops grave* but don't worry! I have a tablet that i will be working the chapters on! Hetalia and the characters don't belong to the Brony and me, just our own characters and the house . . . maybe. Anyway, at the moment I'm in Europe, visiting family and all that fun stuff. Half of chapter 11 is done and I'll be finishing my part soon. The rest will be up to the Brony. Ideas for future chapters are still welcome, we have a general idea for what we want to happen but we're open minded people. I'll be working on the next chapter and have it posted sooner then this one! Happy New Year's to all the readers, reviewers, favoritors, and followers! The Brony and I love you all! And expect anything in the next chapter *wink wink* jk haha.

-The Hetalian


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